"Humans are more closely related to chimps, than horses are to donkeys"?

Question

I was watching the Charles Darwin programme earlier, and that is what Richard Dawkins said. How is it possible that donkeys and horses can create a hybrid, but humans and chimps cant?

Answer 1

humans and chimps can but there are many issues that go along with it including moral, ethics, and what would happen to the offspring?

Answer 2

I heard that AIDS started from humans s******g monkeys...idk but Im pretty sure Richard Dawkins would like to get him some monkey butt.

Answer 3

hmmm......interesting

Answer 4

Percentage of identical DNA is the key to saying how related a species is to another.

It is thought that we came from the same species as a chimpanzee did, that it split off in many directions - human, neanderthal, chimp (and all sorts of other monkey species'). Naturally there is going to be a lot there that is the same.

Just an interesting fact, carrots have about 90% of the same DNA as us, so a small difference between beings which do in some way look similar isn't a big suprise.

Plus the fact, its not as simple as saying "this species is more related than that" horses and donkeys can make a stable hybrid because important genes are compatible and therefore don't result in the death of the zygote. We may be more related to chimps, its just there have been changes in the genetic make up of both humans and chimps which make our DNA incompatible via sexual reproduction.

Answer 5

The amount of difference is less important than what is different.

Humans and apes are different enough that reproduction cannot occur under normal conditions.  It was tried by the Soviets.

It's possible you could successfully create a hybrid artificially in a lab, but it's either difficult, impossible, or no one has bothered to tried.

Answer 6

One of the differences between humans and chimps is how the genes are arranged.  Humans have 46 chromosomes, but chimps have 48, and even though nearly all the genes are the same, you would not get a workable system out of 23 chromosomes from a human's genome, and 24 from a chimp's.

We know from the DNA evidence that HIV has jumped from chimps to humans (and even back again) several times. Chimps don't get AIDS, because HIV has been among them for longer, selectively breeding for resistance.  Jumping between species (no need to snigger) will happen from time to time through blood contact while hunting or butchering.

Answer 7

I hadn't heard this particular claim, so I don't know.

But it is not completely out of the question.

When we talk about how "closely related" two organisms are, we usually refer to the percentage of DNA that they have in common, which gives us an indication of how recently they split.

So it is possible that humans and chimps have a much smaller divergence in DNA ... and therefore a more recent split, than we find between horses and donkeys ... but that the specific parts of the DNA that are different are more lethal as far as crossbreeding.

In other words, even though the split is more recent, the DNA that differs is more in the critical areas that affect reproduction.  Whereas horses and donkeys have much more total DNA that is different, but not in the critical areas that would prevent interbreeding (although it is enough to prevent the offspring from being fertile).

I hope that make sense.

Answer 8

It's almost certain that humans and chimps could produce a hybrid, however, anyone with even the slightest bit of ethical consideration would not do it.  As a scientist you would never work again.  And, it would require money and no one would fund it.

However, apparently Stalin did in fact try to create human-chimp hybrids, but was unsuccessful.  However, that was many years ago with much less advanced technology and he only tried a couple of times.

Answer 9

Humans and chimps almost certainly can create a hybrid, possibly even a fertile hybrid unlike a mule which is sterile. BUT as humans tend to avoid having s*x with chimps such a hybrid has never been recorded.  

Answer 10

Hiya Shivorny

Good question!

http://www.rotten.com/library/cryptozool...

http://robotics.stanford.edu/~oli/oliver...

http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/...

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewar...

I saw it too.

The presenter started off by stating that he didn't believe in God, then he tried to ram his beliefs on some poor schoolchildren.

This week he still pontificated and couldn't answer an African Bishop about the goals and randomness of the evolutionary theory.

The kids went to the seaside and picked up loads of fossils.

They didn't find any "missing link" between monkeys, and humans.

http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles...

By the way, mosquitoes found in Amber... seen them?

They are many millions of years old, but haven't changed.... not a jot!

He would rather skip answering that one too.

Sharks and crocodiles haven't changed in millions of years, so where does that leave evolutionism?

http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation...

http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/tektonics/...

We are humans, and animals are just that.

There is no doubt that Charles Darwin was a clever man, and there is absolutely no chance of the presenter explaining where our life force comes from.

We have , like all living things a life force.

You can't see it under a microscope, but, without it, non of us would exist.