How You’re Linked to Your Family… and Every Living Thing That Ever Lived

🌱 Let’s Start with a Big Thought

You Share Genes With Your Family.

We’ve talked about this already, but let’s go deeper.

Your body is made using a mix of genes from:

• Your mom

• Your dad

But those genes didn’t start with them.

They got copied from your grandparents…
Who got them from their parents…
And way, way back — from the very first humans.

That means:

✅ You share genes with your family
✅ You even share genes with people you’ve never met
✅ You’re part of a giant family tree of life

🧒 Why You’re Like Your Family… But Not Exactly

When genes get copied from one generation to the next, they sometimes:

• Mix differently

• Turn on or off in new ways

• Or change just a little (remember mutations?)

That’s why:

• You may have your dad’s chin but your mom’s voice

• You and your siblings are similar, but still different

• Even twins aren’t 100% the same!

The copying is super careful — but never boring. Every person is a slightly new recipe.

🦁 You Also Share Genes With Animals!

Yes — it’s true.

You might look very different from a monkey or a cat or a fish.

But if we zoom inside their bodies, we see something shocking:

👉 Their DNA is made of the same four letters: A, T, C, G
👉 They have genes just like you
👉 Some of those genes do the same jobs

In fact:

• You share 98–99% of your genes with a chimpanzee

• About 85% with a mouse

• Even some with bananas and bacteria!

That’s because we all came from the same starting point long, long ago.

🧪 Evolution: The Long Story of Life Changing

Let’s imagine this:

A long time ago, there was a very simple living thing. Just one cell.
It had some genes. When it made copies of itself, tiny changes happened.
Over time, some of those changes helped it survive better.

Then:

• It became many cells

• Then it became a wiggly creature

• Then something with eyes

• Then arms… legs… brains…

Fast forward millions of years → fish, birds, lions, trees… humans.

This is called evolution — how life changes over time because of gene copying and mutations.

🔁 How Copying Genes Changes a Species

Let’s say one bird is born with a mutation that gives it longer wings.

That bird flies better. It gets more food. It has more babies.
Its babies inherit the longer-wing gene.

Soon, more birds in that group have longer wings.
After many generations, that group becomes a new species of bird.

All because of a change in a copied gene.

Now imagine this happening with every living thing, all the time, forever.

That’s how life on Earth grows and changes.

🌍 From One Cell… To All Life

You, a tree, a dog, a jellyfish — we all came from one ancient life form that copied itself.

Each time it copied, the genes changed just a little.

Billions of years later — we have:

• Flowers

• Ants

• Elephants

• Whales

• People

• And even more we haven’t discovered yet!

All from copying genes, over and over, with tiny changes.

👶 You Are a Part of This Huge Story

You might think:

“I’m just one person. How can I be connected to all of that?”

But you are!

Because every cell in your body:

✅ Has DNA
✅ Copies that DNA
✅ Carries genes from long ago
✅ Might one day pass those genes to the next generation

Your genes are history and future, all in one.

🧠 Recap!

✅ Genes are passed down from parents to children
✅ Gene copying helps your body grow and stay alive
✅ Tiny changes in copied genes = mutations
✅ Some changes help life survive — that’s how evolution works
✅ You share many genes with animals (and even plants!)
✅ All life is part of one big family
✅ Your genes carry a story millions of years old