Endogenous retroviruses

All humans? Yes. Race is a human contrivance.

Chimps are apes. The easiest way to tell the difference between a monkey and an ape is that apes don't have tails. When we say chimps we mean Pan troglodytes. This is the genus/species name given to chimpanzees. Humans have the same imprints as chimpanzees and gorillas, since we share a common ancestor who also had those imprints. We also share imprints with other apes, and those reflect how far back our common ancestor was. So we will share imprints with chimps and gorillas that are not shared with orangutans, however chimps, humans, and chimps do share imprints with orangutans. The arrows at each branch show the imprints that are shared with branches further down the trees.

As mentioned above, from the DNA sequence. Also, as is mentioned in the OP, by observing first had the insertion of the sequences due to viral infection in cultured cells in the lab.

Keep it simple rmwilliamsII....
You may understand what you are saying, but as for me who knows nothing of these things, your post could have been written in binary
and it would have made as much sense.
So ..I'll have to ask the questions again.
And please..no references to techno speak sites,
I'm in here asking questions because people already understand the concept and I would like it explained SIMPLY.


Okay thanks for the simplified clarifications.

So please be patient with me because I am going to ask heaps of questions.
But one or two at a time as my brain is already close to overload.

1: Is this identical imprint in ALL races of humans ?

2: Clarify Chimp---all monkeys or just the chimpanzee species.
Can't quite make out the imprints in the above picture.
Does it say humans have same imprint as all the types of monkeys ?

3: How do we know it's a virus that made the imprint.

LOL Either you posted just as I was posting Loudmouth, ot I didn't see it.

-- Okay, so it's established that it is a virus because of conducted tests.
-- All races of humans have same identical imprint.
-- The exact same imprint as apes.
-- Concluding a common ancestor.

1: is this imprint in an identical position in ALL humans and ALL apes ?

All humans share the same ERVs in the same position on the genome. We share several of these ERVs with chimpanzees that we don't share with any other primates. Both chimps and humans share different ERVs with other primate species.

Humans and chimps share common ERVs with gorillas.
Humans, chimps and gorillas share ERVs with orangutans
Humans, chimps, gorillas and orangutans share ERVs with gibbons
Humans, chimps, gorillas, orangutans and gibbons share ERVs with Old world monkeys
and the entire batch then shares ERVs with New world monkeys.

This shows the order in which the species diverged.

Alternate Carpark,

As stated above, the ERV's are in the same exact spot in each of the genomes. The chances of these insertions happening independently of each other is very, very unlikely. The odds for this hapenning have to be in the 1 in a billion range. However, the odds of it happening once is probable, given enough time. If that species then branches off into another species, that new species will also carry the ERV.

Let me see if I can break this down for you. Instead of using the normal designation for viral insertions, I will just use letters. Hopefully this will not intimidate as much. I will also restrict this to humans, chimps, and orangutans. This will hopefully help in visualizing how common ancestory is set up.

1. Humans have ERV's A, B, C, D, and E.

2. Chimps have A, B, C, D, and F.

3. Orangutans have A, B, G, and H.

We then see that all three have A and B in common. Therefore the common ancestor for all three had these ERV's.

We see that orangutans have G and H which are not represented in the other two. These ERV's occured after the split from the common ancestor.

We see that in addition to A and B, humans and chimps also have C and D in common. This means that humans and chimps share a common ancestor after orangutans. These two species branched off after the orangutans line.

Humans and chimps share A, B, C, and D but differe in E and F. These ERV's occured after the split between chimps and humans.

So the tree is constructed like so. Orangutans branch off, leaving us with the orangutan line and the human/chimp common ancestor. Then humans and chimps branch off from their common ancestor. This forms the nested hierarchy that we see when looking at fossils through morphological changes. In fact, the ERV trees that are constructed agree with the fossil record. The important lesson to take away from this is that ERV's and the fossil record are independent measures. That is, the findings in one does not influence the findings in the other field. This is how evolution is tested, corroboration from many independent measures when the evolutionary assumption is applied. If the evolutionary assumption was wrong, then the independent measures would not agree. Therefore, evolution is testable and can be falsified. Comparing ERV's with the fossil record is another example of how evolution has passed scientific tests and is a validated theory.

Thanks for that, it takes a little while before it sinks in.

Okay so humans and apes have the same ancestor.
Now when you say ancestor, do you mean an ancestorial species or
one singular animal that is the "father" of all the subsequent species ?

I am not trying to compare this to an adam and eve scenario by the way.
Just trying to understand the geneology of it.

Both. The ERV insertion happens to one individual. But this ERV is passed down to all his/her offspring.

It is just an extreme case of the sibling breakdown, where statistically at some point, everyone will be related to one person in some way. This is particularly acute in small populations. If we imagine a small tribe of about a hundred people, who all bred relatively randomly, at some point everyone will be able to say that one of their great great great...... grandparents is the same person, and everyone will share a bit of his genetic code (though there may be mutations in the meantime)

__________________
MSci MSc ARCS DIC PhD..... yes, I am bragging.

For the ERV to be passed down it has to be present in thee sperm or egg that ends up bringing forth a child right? Where does sperm or eggs get there DNA from? That is, when sperm or eggs are created, what is there DNA modeled after? I would imagine that because of random mutations, that everyone has some variations of there original genome present in different places of there body.

Yes. The ERV has to be inserted into a germ line cell or has to already be present in the genome of the organism at the time of conception. Once the ERV is in the genome it is passed on just like any other piece of non-coding DNA. As an aside, the majority of DNA in the human genome does not code for a protein.

Sperm are the result of a process called spermatogenesis. Germ line sperm cells divide into two populations. One population goes through a few more divisions and becomes a sperm cell while the other population stays on as a germ line sperm cells and gives rise to subsequent sperm.

Oogenesis, or egg production in females, occurs during development in the womb. A woman in born with all of the eggs she will ever have, and these are stored in her ovaries. Only a small portion of those eggs will ever make their way through the reproductive system and have a chance at reproduction.

And we do. Those mutations occur during the process of making eggs and sperms, and so neither parent has those mutaitons in their genome. If I remember correctly, there are about 5-20 mutations per generation. These estimates vary depending if you are looking at non-functional or functional DNA. This is by memory, but I could look it up if necessary.