The quoted example's problem is not because it suffers from any of these. But rather, it's starting assumption is simply incorrect. Please refer to the bolded part in the first post above.

A quick google search, the first hit at yahoo, turns up this ..

Actually there is plenty of evidence that a species can change the number of chromosomes (and chromosomes don't occur "within" DNA). We even know the mechanism by which this happens ... a runaway gene translocation that effectively copies an entire chromosome onto the end of another (thus fusing two chromosomes together). While this is often fatal or leads to infertility ... it doesn't *have* to do either ... as long as the genes are still line up, the males and females can still interbreed, and even produce fertile offspring.

For example, the domestic horse has 64 chromosomes, while the wild horse (Przewalski's horse) has 66. The two can not only interbreed, but produce fertile offspring.

This post has been edited by dkk: Apr 14 2012, 09:49 AM

Did we have fur to begin with?

Let me generalize the question a little. Why would an animal that previously had fur, evolve into one that does not have fur? The "evolutionary" answer is that it lives in an environment that favours those offspring with fewer/no fur. At each generation, those that carry the genes for less fur, reproduce better and have more offsprings. This is why elephants today do not have fur.

It's in the eye of the beholder. You think humans look different because you're the one doing the looking.

When I was a kid, my parents raised chickens. About 50 of them. And I know each one by sight. To a city dweller, all chickens look alike. A chicken is a chicken. Especially if they're all white, they''ll be impossible to tell apart. But to a chicken, all humans look alike.

Second example. My mom says all black africans look alike. I think she has a point. They could be a bit hard to tell apart. But that is only because we grow up not seeing a lot of them. I'm sure they also say that all Asians look alike.

I suspect, it's not that humans look different individually. But as we grow up, our brains are wired to pick up certain cues to enable us to tell human faces apart. If you grow up in a farm with 100 sheep, you'll be able to tell sheep apart by sight as well.