HEADLINE: 'DNA Study Maps Human-Chimp Split' (Crawford Man?)

[Bluebear]

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

Previous genetic research has shown that chimpanzees and humans are sister species, having split off from a common ancestor about 7 million years ago. The new study goes farther by looking at approximately 800 times more DNA than earlier efforts.

That additional data make it possible to determine not just when, but 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."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060517/ap_on_sc/human_chimp_split

[diamondsndust]

1. picture to back up the article....

[rpannier]

2. Crawford Man...That's hysterical

Thanks.

[Gabi Hayes]

3. is this it?

[Gabi Hayes]

4. this?

[Bluebear]

5. hehehehehehe

Thank you for the illustration!

[Gabi Hayes]

7. not mine....just found it someplace...this one I found here, IIRC

[Gabi Hayes]

6. this?

[Warpy]

8. Pretty funny article in spots

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

I don't know why. Think of the horny men who mate with sheep, goats, mules, and blow up dolls. Some men would mate with a tree.

Maybe the "make up sex" period details when hominid females discovered there really was a connection between sex and childbirth and started kicking the males out of bed when they already had too many offspring.

[smirkymonkey]

9. The Missing Link.....