Remember those animal/human hybrids Bush was so worried about?

[dflprincess]

This ought to make his head explode.

http://www.startribune.com/484/story/439373.html

New research suggests that the ancestors of humans and those of chimpanzees may have co-mingled as recently as about 5 million years ago.
David Brown, Washington Post

When the ancestors of human beings and the ancestors of chimpanzees parted ways 6.3 million years ago, it was probably a very long goodbye. Some of their descendants may even have gone back for a final tryst. That's the conclusion a group of scientists has reached, using a comparison of the genes of human beings and their closest animal relatives to sketch a picture of human origins far more detailed than what fossil bones have revealed.

According to the new theory, chimps and humans shared a common, ape-like ancestor much more recently than previously thought. Furthermore, when the two emerging species split from each other, it wasn't a clean break. Some members of the two groups seem to have interbred about 1.2 million years after they first diverged, before finally going their separate ways for good.

If the theory proves correct, it means we are descended from something akin to chimp/human hybrids. That's a new idea, and it challenges the prevailing view that hybrids tend to die out.

The evidence of ancestral chimp and human interbreeding emerged from comparing parts of their genomes to each other and to those of gorillas, orangutans and macaques.

Of course, this goes a long way explaining the Chimp himself.

[MercutioATC]

1. Hot monkey sex!

Isn't that a little racy for GD?

:)

[Inland]

2. That was my first thought on seeing this in the paper today.

We are indeed man animal hybrids? Oh, jeez.

It's one thing to be descended from monkeys. It's another thing to be desecended from humans who DID IT with monkeys. *shudder*

[mrcheerful]

4. That would explain red neck pukes, seems pukes will screw anything.

[AlienGirl]

5. Not quite, but we are the "third chimp"

The species that evolved from the apparent interbreeding of early hominids and chimpanzees didn't go on to evolve into us.

That said, we're more like chimps and bonobos than macaws are like African Greys, and we have no problem grouping both of those as parrots.

Tucker

[diamondsndust]

3. he was just trying to protect the family's image...

but his image is already burned into our minds.

[1620rock]

6. ...maybe a lot of shared bedrooms on the ark?

[eppur_se_muova]

7. This calls for a T-shirt...