You may think I am nuts... but just wondering. How about Dolphins? I know the cromosms must match... no other animal has similar enough cromosm as humans?
2007-01-23 16:11:42 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
We have 24 sets of chromosomes. Our closest extant relatives are chimps and bonobos who have 25 sets, making us incompatible. It may be possible to do it in the lab but unethical.
2007-01-23 17:48:57 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My professor in evolution said during one of his lectures, that we really don't know, because no human would ever be intimate with an ape (chimpanzees are our closest relatives). Think about the ethical implications if a human had a baby with a chimpanzee!
Recent genetic research show that human and chimpanzees started to become different species 9 million years age, but continued to interbreed for another 4 million years, before they finally stopped interbreeding, and became fully separate species. Human ancestors and chimpanzee ancestors interbred to create a hybrid species, which could have bred amongst themselves....
read the two articles I have provided links to, they explain it better than I can : o )
And we actually have a very similar number of chromosomes compared to the great apes - we have 23, while they have 24.
Species with different number of chromosomes can interbreed - but the offspring may be infertile.
And a lot of species can interbreed with other species - Horse, Donkey = Mule, Tiger + Lion = Liger, goats and sheep too. Have a look at the forum post - the third link - about other species that have interbred. And look at wikipedias about hybrid species - fourth link.
Horses and donkeys became different species 2-4 million years ago, and tigers and lions about 3 million years ago. So it is not that much longer since human and chimpanzees became different species - 5 million years ago..
Based on the above, I think it could be possible for humans and chimpanzees to have a baby - but it would be extremely unethical.
2007-01-24 06:36:01 · answer #2 · answered by southernrightwhale 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Humans and monkeys have genetics that are 99.9% similar, yet they still could not reproduce. Mammals all have very similar chromosomes, but the slightest dissimalarities make the biggest differences.
So, yes, humans can only have babies with other humans, no they are not close enough to reproduce with monkeys.
2007-01-24 00:22:44 · answer #3 · answered by Baby Boy 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There has been a considerable amount of research in this area both sanctioned and not...and the r esults have al been the same...no other creature has a genetic code that would allow it...even though we shar 98 or 99 percent of our DNA with other primates, that 1 or 2 percent differenc is snough to make it impossible. at least for now...
2007-01-24 00:20:56 · answer #4 · answered by kveldulf_gondlir 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Humans only.
You're right about the chromosomes.
2007-01-24 00:14:31 · answer #5 · answered by ecolink 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
what the guy above me said
2007-01-24 00:22:20 · answer #6 · answered by VCP 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋