The jokes write themselves!

[theweaselking]

One of the most detailed comparisons yet of human and chimp DNA shows that the split between the two species was a long, complicated affair that may even have featured an evolutionary version of breakup sex.

Previous research has shown chimpanzees and humans are sister species, split from a common ancestor about 7 million years ago. The new study goes further by looking at about 800 times more DNA than earlier efforts. That extra data make it possible to determine when and how the split happened.

"For the first time, we're able to see the details written out in the DNA," said Eric Lander, one of the collaborators on the study. "What they tell us at the least is that the human-chimp speciation was very unusual."

Unusual, indeed. The researchers, from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, propose that humans and chimpanzees first split up about 10 million years ago. Then, after evolving in different directions for about 4 million years, they got back together for a brief fling that produced a third, hybrid population with characteristics of both lines.

That genetic collaboration then gave rise to two separate branches — one leading to humans and the other to chimps.

The work has inspired both admiration and skepticism. Many paleontologists have a hard time believing some of the humans that are known to have lived during that era could have been pairing up with apes.

"It's a totally cool and extremely clever analysis," said Daniel Lieberman, a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard who wasn't involved in the study. "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."
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One word: Furries.

Comments

[denovan.livejournal.com]

i just fell off my chair laughing at that last line.

my boss thinks i'm nuts (nevermind that i am)!

[gothpanda.livejournal.com]

Hmm. It is hard for me to believe that, after evolving in different directions for 4 million years, chimps and humans would be able to produce viable offspring.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Grizzly bears and polar bears can. So can lions and tigers.

And horses and donkeys are just a few mutations short of being able to.

So I don't think it's totally out of the question.

[gothpanda.livejournal.com]

That's true. I have no idea, however, how long ago the bears and big cats differentiated into separate species.

Although, I'm certain they're not talking about humans and chimps doing it. They're talking about almost-humans and proto-chimps doing it. We're not even into homo erectus territory 4 million years ago, so it's really not that freaky.

[normanrafferty.livejournal.com]

Greek myths are full of bestiality -- Helen of Troy herself was sired from a woman mating with Zeus as a swan. Then again, those Greeks were wacky. Not like us, today.

[laurewyrm.livejournal.com]

Cause we all know that no current humans would EVER think about having sexual relations with animals...

Bait.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

In a population large enough to *breed*?

(And furries? Breed? That would imply that they weren't homosexuals AND that they weren't completely undesirable, even to each other, when removed from their native online environment! Silly Laurie!)

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

You suggest that we are all descended from furries?

[sebkha.livejournal.com]

That's what it says in The Darwin Code.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Somehow I seriously doubt "humans used to be more like monkeys, and before that more like the common ancestor of humans and monkeys, and before THAT etc etc etc" falls into the same category as "Yeah, my real self is TOTALLY a skunk with wings. You too? OMGZORZ skunks with wings are copyright ME you're totally ripping me off I stab you bitch"

More seriously: Why are there no "monkey" furries, hmm?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Also:
Comparing Charles Darwin to Dan Brown is a terrible insult to Darwin.