Re: Why Large Gap Between Species...?

Diarmid Murray (diarmid.murray@zetnet.co.uk)
Mon, 9 Dec 1996 00:28:44 GMT

In message <32AA4BE5.78C8@scn.org>
Phillip Bigelow <bh162@scn.org> writes

> 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>

is'nt "exceedingly unlikely" more sustainable than "not possible"?
i've never tried, but more seriously, how sustained or well resourced
has any attempt been? i thought your point about wipe-out by
interbreeding was very interesting, lots of food for thought there.
(Neanderthals?)