Posted on 05/18/2006 3:46:41 AM PDT by bd476
Boston scientists released a ... report yesterday that challenges the timeline of human evolution ... suggests ... human ancestors bred with chimpanzee ancestors long after they had initially separated into two species.
The researchers, working at the Cambridge-based Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT ... estimate ... the first human ancestors split from the chimpanzees. ... at least 1 million years later than paleontologists had believed, based on fossils of early, humanlike creatures.
The lead scientist said that this jarring conflict with the fossil record, combined with ... other strange genetic patterns the team uncovered, led him to a startling explanation: that human ancestors evolved apart from the chimpanzees for hundreds of thousands of years, and then started breeding with them again before a final break.
''Something very unusual happened," said David Reich, one of the report's authors and a geneticist at the Broad and Harvard Medical School.
The suggestion of interbreeding was met with skepticism by paleontologists, who said they had trouble imagining a successful breeding between early human ancestors, which walked upright, and the chimpanzee ancestors, which walked on all fours ...
This contradiction could be resolved, Reich said, if early creatures like Toumai then interbred with chimpanzee ancestors, leaving a population of hybrids that developed into today's humans. (In this scenario, the line of Toumai creatures then went extinct.)
But it is also possible, he said, that the dating of the early human fossils is wrong, or that the dating of other, older fossils used in his calculations is wrong, which would partially undercut the interbreeding theory. Scientists said that the report will probably bring intense scrutiny, as researchers look for potential flaws in the work or other explanations for its findings...
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
When results aren't predicted by the hypothesis, of course, go to the least likely explanation and the riddle is solved, hypothesis proven and all is well. Whatever you do, don't throw out the hypothesis. /s
Please no Kennedy pics!
What's the big news here? This kinda stuff happens all the time. I read just a week or so ago about a guy "breeding" with a horse!
or helen thomas :(
Better than Helen Thomas pics.
LOL.
Just imagine the tax dollars sunk into the research leading to the conclusion. Or think about the student grants and loans which propped up the researchers' education.
prisoner6
LOL, looks I'm going to be the only one disturbed by the waste of money.
.....so THAT'S where libs came from. Hmmm.......who knew.........
I bred with my ex-girlfriend after we split, and we even had wild monkey...nevermind.
now we know the French had a genetic basis to become surrender monkeys
Apparently these scientists have just discovered the effects of alcohol.
Leave my Prom Date out of this.
This one is too obvious.....I'm not saying anything.....but you know what I'm thinking
Indeed, lol.
Good restraint, Fred! :-)
LOL, okayyyyy.
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