All Creatures Great and Small
All animals, plants, and fungi share an ancestor that lived about 1.6 billion years ago. Every lineage that descended from that progenitor retains parts of its original genome. All Creatures Great and Small is my Monotype about all that we have in common with our fellow creatures. That includes of course the unique world that has shaped our evolution and the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, the DNA that we share. Humans are most closely related to the great apes of the family Hominidae. We share 98.8 percent of our DNA with bonobos and chimpanzees. 98.4 percent with gorillas and with mice we share nearly 90 percent of human DNA. Humans and dogs share 84 percent of their DNA! No wonder I love my dog. She is me! Of course, humans, dogs, mice and apes are going to have DNA in common. They are all mammals. Humans and birds though are a different matter. Yet we, too, share a lot of DNA, 65 percent. We even share a quarter of our DNA with a grain of rice. Amazi