Is It Possible For A Man To Produce Offspring With An Ape? (moral, evolution)

[kai]

Originally Posted by stephenw

oh yeah, then explain Bono. I'm sure he's at least half ape.

you must mean bonzo, not lord Bono of the rainforest

[Charity]

Perhaps Marya would like to sign up for the experiment and let us all know the result, all for the sake of education of course.

Quit monkeying around Marya and get with the program!!!



ANYONE HERE WORK FOR THE MEDIA, WE HAVE A STORY TO TELL in a few months of course.

[Autodidact]

Looks like you're right. (This summary from Slate.)
Could we mate with other animals today?Probably not. Ethical considerations preclude definitive research on the subject, but it's safe to say that human DNA has become so different from that of other animals that interbreeding would likely be impossible. Groups of organisms tend to drift apart genetically when they get separated by geographical barriers—one might leave to find new food sources, or an earthquake could force them apart. When the two groups come back into contact with each other many, many years later, they may each have evolved to the point where they can no longer mate.
In general, two types of changes prevent animals from interbreeding. The first includes all those factors—called "pre-zygotic reproductive isolating mechanisms"—that would make fertilization impossible. After so many generations apart, a pair of animals might look so different from one another that they're not inclined to have sex. (If we're not even trying to mate with monkeys, we'll never have half-human, half-monkey babies.*) If the animals do try to get it on despite changed appearances, incompatible genitalia or sperm motility could pose another problem: A human spermatozoon may not be equipped to navigate the reproductive tract of a chimpanzee, for example.

The second type of barrier includes "post-zygotic reproductive isolating mechanisms," or those factors that would make it impossible for a hybrid animal fetus to grow into a reproductive adult. If a human were indeed inclined and able to impregnate a monkey, post-zygotic mechanisms might result in a miscarriage or sterile offspring. The further apart two animals are in genetic terms, the less likely they are to produce viable offspring. At this point, humans seem to have been separate from other animals for far too long to interbreed. We diverged from our closest extant relative, the chimpanzee, as many as 7 million years ago. (For comparison, our apparent tryst with the Neanderthals occurred less than 700,000 years after we split off from them.)
Researchers haven't pinned down exactly which mechanisms prevent interbreeding under most circumstances. Some closely related species can mate even if they have different numbers of chromosomes. Przewalski's horse, for example, has 33 pairs of chromosomes instead of the 32 most horses have, but it can interbreed with regular equines anyway—the offspring takes the average and ends up with 65 chromosomes.

[Jaiket]

Originally Posted by stephenw

oh yeah, then explain Bono. I'm sure he's at least half ape.

He's all ape.

[kadzbiz]

Originally Posted by Autodidact

People are apes. Could a human being reproduce with a chimpanzee? We don't know, and I don't think anyone is going to do the experiment and find out.

Now I'm not meaning to pick on you Autodidact, I just want to offer your statement as an example. Why do peole often say things like "We don't know" when they mean "I don't know, so I doubt anyone else knows"?

[crystalonyx]

Unless the genetic layout is almost a perfect match, as far as number of chromosomes etc.) reproduction is impossible between 2 differerent beings.

[camanintx]

Originally Posted by crystalonyx

Unless the genetic layout is almost a perfect match, as far as number of chromosomes etc.) reproduction is impossible between 2 differerent beings.

Are you suggesting that horses (with 64 chromosomes), donkeys (with 62 chromosomes) and zebras (with 44 chromosomes) cannot cross breed?

[lilithu]

Originally Posted by camanintx

Are you suggesting that horses (with 64 chromosomes), donkeys (with 62 chromosomes) and zebras (with 44 chromosomes) cannot cross breed?

Yeah, I agree that the chromosome number argument is not a good one.

Heck, men and women have significant differences not just genetically but also structurally on the X and Y chromosomes. By that argument there should be no cross-breeding between the sexes.

[Autodidact]

Originally Posted by kadzbiz

Now I'm not meaning to pick on you Autodidact, I just want to offer your statement as an example. Why do peole often say things like "We don't know" when they mean "I don't know, so I doubt anyone else knows"?

I don't know, you'd have to ask the people who meant that when they said it; I didn't.