Ask a Geneticist

The assignment was to write down the most interesting facts that we learned from this answer.

The question is: I realize that humans have 46 chromosomes and chimps 48, but do we (homo sapiens) have more genes or fewer genes than the chimp?

The website is http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=69

I learned that chimps and humans are over 98% the same even though we aren't chimps. This happened because over time some chromosomes were either copied, lost or gained. I think that the essential chromosome for making us chimps was lost and we gained new ones so that we could become more intelligent and evolve into humans. I also learned that goldfish have 94 chromosomes and the toucan has 104! I mean even though the number of chromesomes that we have is basically random, I think we should have more chromosomes because we are a bigger species but I think that the bigger you are the less chromosomes that you have. Lastly I learned that the human probably has the same number of genes as the chimp because we are so similar.