It is impossible to say unequivocally which animal is closely related to a person. The fact is that some animals approach humans at a genetic or anatomical level, while others have similar intellectual characteristics.
Is the closest relative of man a monkey?
Not certainly in that way! This statement was relevant several decades ago. Then it was believed that the closest relative of man is the great ape. This was confirmed by the so-called scale of intelligence among animals. On this scale, great apes were closest to humans. However, a number of experiments and experiments carried out at the present time are pushing the monkey further and further away from a close relationship with humans.
According to the theory of evolution, Homo sapiens is an underdeveloped monkey with one chromosome less than, for example, chimpanzees, but having a similar structure of the skull and forelimbs. Currently, the theory of Charles Darwin about the origin of man from ape does not find its confirmation, which allows the world's scientific minds to seek out all the new "relatives" of man.
Human resemblance to a dolphin
Researchers who have studied the brain characteristics of animals have found that the encephalogram of bottlenose dolphins brings them closer to humans. The fact is that the brain of this species of dolphins is as similar to a human as possible. The gray matter in these animals is slightly larger than in humans, and also contains more convolutions. According to the research of the Swiss professor A. Portman, the mental characteristics of the dolphin took an honorable second place after man (third place in elephants, and fourth in monkeys).
What unites a man with a pig?
The anatomical structure of pigs allows them to be called the closest relatives of humans. The fact is that the embryo of this mammal animal has a five-fingered limb and a muzzle that is very reminiscent of a human face. Piglet on a pork face and hooves on legs develop just before childbirth. In addition, pigs that are already born have maximum physiology with humans. That is why pig organs (liver, kidneys, heart, spleen) are used in surgery for human transplantation.
Similarities between people and rats
These rodents, too, in an amazing way copy humans at the anatomical level, but not as much as pigs. Rats have the same blood composition and tissue structure as humans. Curiously, these rodents are the only animals in the world that (like humans) have abstract thinking. Rats know how to make simple conclusions, which allows them to be so tenacious. In addition, if a rat is enlarged to the size of a human, and then the skeleton is straightened, then one can see that the joints of humans and rats have the same anatomical structure, and the bones have an equal number of fragments.
