Fossil evidence shows that humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor from about 7 million years ago. Recently geneticists have been comparing genetic sequences to learn more about this. Guess what? The data show that although humans and chimpanzees split about 7 million years ago, they apparently did some interbreeding a little more than 5 million years ago.
According to an article in the paper, for the offspring to be fertile, it must have been a female, and it was probably the human male that mated with a female chimp. Male hybrids of this sort are sterile. Then, the offspring had to mate again with a proto-human. Eventually the population of the early proto-humans became extinct, leaving two lineages: the proto-chimps, and chimp hybrids, which evolved into us.
Among the numerous comments from the scientific community were remarks from those who could not believe that a "human" could bring itself to mate with a "chimp". Why, chimps walk on all fours and humans on two legs! Some pointed out that the difference was undoubtedly not as great at that time as it is now. Obviously nobody has considered the fact that this semi-interspecies mating was probably the result of a prehuman male falling head-over-heels in love with a chimpoid.
You kinky guys!
BBC News
Who says there's no humor in evolution?
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2 comments:
Principal Quattrano's Toy said...
Of course it was a male who got it on with the lady chimp. And he brought her his bananna and all the nuts he had in the forest, too. Who knows just when superior females came to have low opinion of the male. It had to be very early on. We men are jerks, jerk-offs, and meant to be used by women. Women only allow men to sometimes believe that they are in control of things
9:48 PM
Principal Quattrano's Toy said...
Also, this fine lady chimp wouldn't look all that bad to our proto kinkman, anyway. 7 million years minus 5 million years is a mere 2 million years. Maybe it was all a matter of variety for kinkman. He was just tired and he probably wasn't married yet, anyway. That little ceremony is a recent thing. He was long dead before the male complaints about marriage must have begun in earnest. I wonder if Chimp Lady wanted all the nuts that he had gathered together to show her. I wonder when "shame" began, in this regard. Do chimps get red in the face, my dear Principal? Or is that the province of humans under the weight of civilization? Why are some of us males so pessimistic about male-female relationships? Why do some of us get "philosophical"? Like Arthur Schopenhauer. He said a married man will do anything for money. This is life, though. The individual is sacrificed in the service of life. Do you suppose Schopenhauer would have been an Internet wanker if he only had a computer? I'll just bet. pqt
7:11 AM
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