[extropy-chat] Re: Human Evolution

[CurtAdams at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/19/03 4:55:22, mail at harveynewstrom.com writes:

>Are you guys actually debating whether humans can mate with chimps and
>have
>live cross-species children?  I really question the level of scientific
>knowledge on this list.

Generically speaking, at 4-6 million years of separation, almost anything's 
possible.  Human/chimp offspring could be anything from inviable as embryos
to fully fertile (contrary to common belief, chromosome count mismatch doesn't
guarantee infertility).  There's no way to know for sure at present without
doing the experiment, which is obviously unethical.  The best argument against
crossbreeding being possible is that some human somewhere has probably 
tried the experiment surreptitiously (there's a lot of odd sexual kinks in 
this
world) and we've not heard of any results.