Ancient humans liked to monkey around.

[Mercutio]

The latest genetic study on human/chimp evolutionary history. (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19173399-30417,00.html)BEFORE they went their separate evolutionary ways, the ancestors of chimpanzees and people got up to plenty of, well, monkey business.
Moreover, this went on for about four million years.

The most detailed analysis conducted of human and chimpanzee DNA reveals that after an initial separation from a common ancestor, between five and six million years ago, the species continued interbreeding.While some experts in human evolution remain sceptical of some of the details, they are impressed nevertheless.

"It's a totally cool and extremely clever analysis," said Harvard biological anthropologist Daniel Lieberman, who was not involved in the research.

"My problem is imagining what it would be like to have a bipedal hominid and a chimpanzee viewing each other as appropriate mates, not to put it too crudely," he said.
"Now, a goat, on the other hand..." he continued.

[zakur]

Clever opening. If only chimps were monkeys...

[Mercutio]

Yeah, that bothered me too. Sometimes knowing too much is a burden.

[andyandy]

man! And they didnt even have the "after the seventh pint the night became a bit of a blur...." excuse.....:D

[headscratcher4]

""My problem is imagining what it would be like to have a bipedal hominid and a chimpanzee viewing each other as appropriate mates, not to put it too crudely," he said. "

Laura and George?

Sorry, couldn't stop myself.

[JamesDillon]

http://www.lauranumeroff.com/images/art/laura_chimp-500.jpg

Hot.

[Phil]

man! And they didnt even have the "after the seventh pint the night became a bit of a blur...." excuse.....:D
The chimps or the hominids?

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

So now we can say to fundies: We share a common ancestor with chimps, and we had sex with them!

Will that make the fundies even crazier?

~~ Paul

[ChristineR]

Isn't this sort of a given? There's no clear line between pre-chimp and pre-human, and I suppose you could claim that the definition of species is animals that produce viable offspring.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/060515-10.html

It's true! :)

[joe87]

Isn't this sort of a given? There's no clear line between pre-chimp and pre-human, and I suppose you could claim that the definition of species is animals that produce viable offspring.
Do you mean fertile offspring? Horses and donkeys are separate species, but they can produce sterile offspring - mules. BTW, horses and donkeys have a different number of chromosomes. Here's a quote from http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/may2001/989331026.Ev.r.htmlBarriers To Interbreeding

Now differences in chromosome number do not serve as reproductive barriers between all species. For example, lets look at some of the equine species ( horses and donkeys). Domesticated horses have 32 pairs of chromosomes and Donkeys have 31. Yet, they can produce offspring, mules, which have 31.5 pairs of chromosomes. One of the horse chromosomes goes unpaired. Wild mountain zebras have 16 pairs of chromosomes, while the last species of wild horse (Przewalski's Horse) has 33 pairs. However, all of these equine species can produce hybrid offspring. In all of these crosses but one, the offspring are sterile. It has long been argued that this sterility is due to the difference in chromosome number, but hybrids of the wild (33 pairs) and domesticated horse (32 pairs) are fertile, and have 32.5 pairs of chromosomes. So clearly, something more than just differences in chromosome number is contributing to the species interbreeding barrier.
And we might still be able to breed with chimps, even though we have a different number of chromosomes (23 for us, 24 for chimps), but the offspring of such a mismatch might be sterile.

[This Guy]

You know, I've wondered about this for years. Ever since my brother was born (that's his picture to the left).

But, Mom swore she'd never been to the zoo or a circus!









(Sorry, couldn't resist) :)

[Meffy]

Do you mean fertile offspring? Horses and donkeys are separate species, but they can produce sterile offspring - mules.
And hinnies.

jackass (male donkey) + mare (female horse) = mule

stallion (male horse) + jenny (female donkey) = hinny

Hinnies are somewhat rare, smaller than mules and resembling horses more than donkeys. Both are hardy, tough, and almost always sterile.

[ChristineR]

Yes, I said "viable" when I meant "fertile." I was thinking that an infertile cross-species of hominids would not be a viable species, but of course individuals could be viable.

[JamesDillon]

And we might still be able to breed with chimps, even though we have a different number of chromosomes (23 for us, 24 for chimps), but the offspring of such a mismatch might be sterile.

Given my rather cynical opinion of human nature, I have to think that if such a thing were possible, someone would have demonsrated it by now.

[zakur]

Dare I mention...Humanzee! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanzee)

[Almo]

Hinnies are somewhat rare, smaller than mules and resembling horses more than donkeys. Both are hardy, tough, and almost always sterile.

How does tough differ from hardy?

[Soapy Sam]

How does tough differ from hardy?

I think hardy was the fat one.

[Flange Desire]

Spank that monkey!

[steenkh]

I do not see the interbreeding between early hominids and early chimps as being so strange. After all, they had just separated, and probably looked a lot alike.

[Badger]

I do not see the interbreeding between early hominids and early chimps as being so strange. After all, they had just separated, and probably looked a lot alike.

Hey, when it's last call......

[clarsct]

Gives new meaning to the term 'hot monkey sex'.

Yeah, yeah, they aren't monkeys...it's a fuggin joke, people.

I wonder if any of them were gay, though. Are there any reports of gay chimpanzees? Or any other primate?

Just curious.

[fuelair]

I am operating of the top of my head on this one but I seem to remember that in the early days of the aids epidemic, suggestions were made by involved scientists that human-ape sexual contacts may have been involved in the early stages of its' developing in humans. As regards the prehuman/chimpanzee thing, I suspect the differences in the early break were comparitively minor and would not of necessity prevented genetic exchange - slave-traders/owners often considered slaves to be less than human but....

[Meffy]

How does tough differ from hardy?
The way I was thinking of the words was tough as in hard-working, durable; hardy as in generally healthy and sound of body.

But I like Soapy's answer better. =^_^=

[edit]

Q: What prominent faith healer's mother was a jenny and father was a stallion?

A: Ben Hinny.

[edit edit] Not that there's anything wrong with that. As a skunk, I have no problem with equines. It's the faith healing schtick that bugs me.

[headscratcher4]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060519/ap_on_sc/plan_ahead;_ylt=AmsHOSynVqKw0FYW6Y05A8ys0NUE;_ylu= X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-

Getting back to my political interpreation of it all...this article talks about the ability of Apes to "plan"...though given our record in Iraq, it would seem to be a questionable proposition.

[SPQR]

There's a Far Side cartoon that has a male and female chimp sitting in a tree with the female grooming the male. She has found a blond hair and says, "Huh, a blond hair. Conducting some more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?!"

Apparently, Goodall's "people" got pissed off at this cartoon and demanded an apology from Gary Larson. The funny part was that Jane Goodall hadn't even seen the cartoon and when she eventually did, she found it hilarious.

[ChristineR]

I'm not sure if this has been proved beyond a doubt, but I think AIDS is believed to have begun when humans ate some other primate that had a varient of one of the Simian Immunodeficiency viruses, which are common in primates and not so serious as human AIDS.

According to this site (http://www.avert.org/origins.htm) the closest SIV match to HIV was found in chimps. A lot of attention has also been given to the Green Monkey virus, but it looks like scientists are leaning towards the Chimp verison, or maybe a cross.

In theory this virus could have been sexually transmitted, but it's more likely that it was eating. The likelyhood of actually getting a chimp to cooperate seems low.

[UrsulaV]

Given my rather cynical opinion of human nature, I have to think that if such a thing were possible, someone would have demonsrated it by now.

While my opinion of human nature is also pretty cynical, I actually wouldn't be surprised if it hadn't been tried (or at least, not often enough to prove anything.) Chimps are both rare and immensely strong in comparison with humans, after all, and in general, if human males are going after an...err...relationship with another species...my impression (based on no observational data whatsoever, I hasten to add!) is that they go for something easily controllable that doesn't fidget and is easy to get.

To put it crudely, there are lots of sheep and you can make 'em hold still, whereas it's hard to find a chimp and they'll break you in half if they don't like it.

As for t'other way around, while there's one documented case of an orangutan male raping a human that I know of, I'd guess that contact between the species is so limited that the issue doesn't come up all that often.

I think it's probably unlikely the two can interbreed, mind you, but I don't know if I believe it's been tried very often in the field, as 'twere.

Not that I'm suggesting anybody try.

[Mercutio]

So there was this research lab in, let's say, Stanford, looking into the genetic similarities between chimps and humans. They had always assumed that, since the two populations did not interbreed, that they could not interbreed. Then a lowly undergrad research assistant questioned this assumption, and they were forced to admit it had never been tested. Of course, for purposes of the story they weren't interested in whether this could be done in vitro, but rather the old-fashioned way. None of the researchers could stomach the idea (picky, picky), and they figured they would have to offer a fairly substantial payment in order to attract a "volunteer". So they put an ad in the local paper: "Wanted: Man to have sex with chimpanzee. $2,000." A couple of days later, they get a phone call from an interested man, who says "I just have three requests: First, I gotta have a couple of beers. Second, I get to choose the chimp. And third, you're gonna have to give me a couple of days to come up with the two grand."

[Tricky]

So there was this research lab in, let's say, Stanford, looking into the genetic similarities between chimps and humans. They had always assumed that, since the two populations did not interbreed, that they could not interbreed. Then a lowly undergrad research assistant questioned this assumption, and they were forced to admit it had never been tested. Of course, for purposes of the story they weren't interested in whether this could be done in vitro, but rather the old-fashioned way. None of the researchers could stomach the idea (picky, picky), and they figured they would have to offer a fairly substantial payment in order to attract a "volunteer". So they put an ad in the local paper: "Wanted: Man to have sex with chimpanzee. $2,000." A couple of days later, they get a phone call from an interested man, who says "I just have three requests: First, I gotta have a couple of beers. Second, I get to choose the chimp. And third, you're gonna have to give me a couple of days to come up with the two grand."
Was he from Alabama?

[Mercutio]

Recognize your daddy?

[Outhere]

Further proof of what happens when cousins marry--or whatever.