“If you go back far enough, we share a common ancestor with the butterfly, the gray wolf, mushrooms, sharks, and bacteria. What a family!” – Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson
Did you know that humans share a quarter of their genes with rice, rhinos and reef coral? We do, and all animals, plants, and fungi share an ancestor that existed roughly 1.6 billion years ago, reports National Geographic’s Carl Zimmer.
Every lineage that descended from that ancestor has retained portions of its original genome. The genes we share with trees, fungi and God’s Living creatures are used differently, like how you can use a saxophone for smooth jazz or the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar.”
Astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson, the host of National Geographic’s “Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey,” explains in the second episode titled “Some of the Things That Molecules Do” that the DNA instructions responsible for metabolizing sugar are present in humans, trees, sharks and butterflies. All creatures share a similar genetic code. All living organisms metabolize sugar (example: glucose) and an array of metabolic pathways. It’s one piece of scientific evidence that there’s common ancestry of all living things.
Humans are also made up of star matter, connecting us to the universe.
“Stars die and reborn […] They get so hot that the nuclei of the atoms fuse together deep within them to make the oxygen we breathe, the carbon in our muscles, the calcium in our bones, the iron in our blood,” Tyson explains. “All was cooked in the fiery hearts of long vanished stars. The cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”
He goes on to say that there are as many atoms in each molecule of a human or creature’s DNA as there are stars in a galaxy, and “This is true for dogs, and bears, and every living thing.”
Many scientists separate themselves from religion and scripture, but their work proves the interconnectedness of all life, which is spiritual.
“Accepting our kinship with all life on Earth is not only solid science. In my view, it’s also a soaring spiritual experience,” says Tyson.
All life on Earth is one, which explains our innate desire to live spiritually with pets, other animals and nature.
What are your thoughts about all living creatures sharing a common ancestry? Leave your comment below.