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May 18, 2006
Monkey business
A new study that compares the DNA of humans and chimps indicates that six or seven million years ago the two species sometimes mated and produced hybrid offspring.
Researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard assert that humans and chimpanzees first became separate species about 10 million years ago. DNA indicates that about six million years ago a hybrid species appeared, intimating that humans and chimpanzees were regularly having sex.
"It's a totally cool and extremely clever analysis. 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."Daniel Lieberman
, a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard, commenting on the Broad Institute Study.
In an initial reaction to the study, KIW’s own anthropology expert states that it appears Dr. Lieberman has never been in a barroom at 2:00 am.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer; 18 May 2006; p A10; ‘Humans and chimps: New light shed on big split’
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Seattle Post-Intelligencer; 17 May 2006; 'DNA study maps human-chimp split'
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Posted by williamfrick at May 18, 2006 9:40 AM