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Article: Late swinging in the evolutionary tree?: Geneticists say early human and chimpanzee ancestors may have interbred even after the two species diverged.
- Article from:
- The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA)
- Article date:
- May 18, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 The Philadelphia Inquirer. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Faye Flam
May 18--As we branched off from each other on the evolutionary tree, our ancestors look to have made a messy break from those of chimpanzees. By comparing samples of chimp, gorilla and human DNA, scientists from MIT and Harvard say they see possible evidence of interspecies sex.
But there's a problem with this finding, say paleontologists who study human origins. The geneticists are proposing that our ancestors were still mixing it up with those of the chimps until six million years ago -- a time when one lineage was on all fours, the other already walking upright.
And you thought your relationship had compatibility problems.