How Are Rats Similar to Humans?
WouterRats are similar to humans in many ways, but they are also different in other ways. While rats do not display egoism, they do have a similar tendency to analyze their consequences and make choices. In fact, they are even better at learning some things than humans are. This phenomenon is called metacognition, and it is very similar to human thinking.
Rats can be taught many skills that require coordination of the brain and body, like driving a car to reach a goal, playing hide-and-seek, and using the appropriate tool to get to food that is out of reach. Rats are very similar to humans in that they are very social and care for one another.
Rats and humans share a similar evolutionary history. They came from a single rodent lineage, which diverged from the primate lineage about 80 million years ago. Humans, mice, and rats share one-fourth of their genomes, while rats and mice have twenty pairs. Their chromosomes are similar in many ways, including the distribution of syntenic blocks.
Although both rodent species have genetic similarities, they have different ways to reproduce. Rats reproduce more rapidly than mice, and their mutation rate is much higher than humans’. Rats have undergone mutation more often than mice from their last common ancestor, but mice and humans have the same generation time.
