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From: gt4115a@prism.gatech.EDU (HARDIE,PETER THOMAS)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Can you cross humans and monkeys? (Apes?)
Message-ID: <31658@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 21 Jun 91 20:54:08 GMT
References: <23301@shlump.lkg.dec.com> <2765.28573f51@verifone.com> <2766.2857422d@verifone.com>
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 25

In article <2766.2857422d@verifone.com> ed_l1@verifone.com writes:
> humans X apes?  Still very unlikely for the same reasons.  Even though a
> chimpanzee is only 3% different from us genetically, it is likely enough
> that the 3% difference is enough to prevent crossing. Whether the sperm
> and egg will germinate is a question for the bio folks, whether it would
> live if it did, is even more remote.  
> The chimp is our closest living relative in the animal world.

But are there not other crossbreeds that are more distant from each other
than humans and apes?  Certainly the mule produced by the cross would
be likely to die early.

> So dolphins seem
> (in some cases) to be altruistic.  Humans, in some cases seem to be
> altruistic, too.  There's also lots of dolphins that aren't! -- just like

Someone once claimed that dolphins are smart enough to know that they
are being watched, and therefore never harm humans while observed.  What
they do when not observed is rumored to be more grisly...:-)

-- 
Pete Hardie
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
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