Re: Why Large Gap Between Species...?

Phillip Bigelow (bh162@scn.org)
Sat, 07 Dec 1996 21:02:29 -0800

Nat Turner wrote:
>
> In article <MPG.d11fec0d6788398989687@client.news.psi.net>,
> Noel Dickover <ndickover@ver.lld.com> wrote:

> >I don't think we can rule out the possibility that these groups could
> >still breed with one another, and that, through time, they evolved into a
> >single species.


> Wait a minute, let's get some clarification here -- Can a man impregnate
> a chimp or ape?
> Is it biologically possible?

No it is not possible. But that doesn't preclude the possibility that
the earliest chimp *ancestors* couldn't have occassionally
interbred with the earliest hominid *ancestors*. We will never
know for sure. Interbreeding, or even (interbreeding + anagenesis),
could effectively wipe-out a distinct genetic population in a
geologic-instant, and be a lot less messy at it than would
interspecific warfare.
<pb>