Biochemistry and morphology give us   contrasting views of the difference between humans and chimpanzees.   Biochemical comparisons made with proteins and nucleic acids indicate that   humans are remarkably similar to chimpanzees at the gene level (1). The structural   genes of this pair of species are more similar than the structural genes of   most pairs of species within a genus, regardless of whether the species   compared are vertebrates or invertebrates (1). This biochemical picture,   however, contrasts with that provided by morphologists who assign chimpanzees   and humans not just to separate species but to separate taxonomic families   (2). Thus, the morphological difference between these two species appears   large, whereas the biochemical difference is small.

生物化学和形态学为我们提供了人类和黑猩猩之间差异的不同观点。使用蛋白质和核酸进行的生化比较表明，人类在基因水平上与黑猩猩极为相似（1）。无论比较的物种是脊椎动物还是无脊椎动物，这对物种（人类和黑猩猩）的结构基因都比一个属内大多数物种的结构基因更相似（1）。然而，与这一极小生物化学差异形成鲜明对比的是，形态学家不仅将黑猩猩和人类分为不同的物种，而且将它们分到不同的科（2）。因此，这两个物种之间的形态差异很大，而生化差异很小。