In the nucleus of every cell of every living creature is its “genetic code”. Some of us know it by the mythological name “DNA”, which stands for a very long combination saying more or less “something Nucleic Acid”.

Without delving into some sort of a biology lesson: DNA is made up of long, winding chains of building blocks called “nucleotides”. Different sequences of nucleotides in the chain, which have certain roles in our traits and heredity – are called “genes” (hence the words “genetics” and “genome”). The many genes are parts of the long chains called “chromosomes”, and these are found in a fixed number in the nucleus of every normal cell of the same kind of creature (animal, plant, bacterium, fungus, etc.).

Our chromosomes are organized in pairs. In each normal human cell, there will be 23 such pairs, i.e. 46 chromosomes. In other creatures the number may be different. Somewhat surprisingly, our ape relatives of various kinds have “almost” the same number – 48 chromosomes.

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In fact, it’s not just that we have fewer chromosomes than a chimpanzee. A close examination indicates that this happened several million years ago, when two chromosomes merged (“fused”) during the evolutionary process. Tests show that:

1. The pattern of chromosome 2 in humans is remarkably similar to the combination of the patterns of two chromosomes of the chimpanzee.
2. This chromosome in humans abnormally has the remains of an additional “midpoint” (a.k.a. “centromere”), while every “normal” chromosome has only one.
3. The said chromosome in humans has “telomeres” (regions that characterize the edges of chromosomes) also in the middle.

If we add all this to the numerous other findings demonstrating the gradual development of humans from an ancient ape, we reach the conclusion about the fusion of chromosomes. Of course (as creationists say) it is also possible that there is some kind of an intelligent “god”, who planted a lot of skeletons and skulls that would make us think that humans gradually evolved from an ancient ape, and even went through the trouble of creating a chromosome for humans with many characteristics as if at some point it was created from fusing two chromosomes of an ancient ape, to confuse us even more. What a naughty god!