wayne@csri.toronto.edu (Wayne Hayes) (10/20/90)
This discussion isn't very relevant to sci.space or physycs, so I've modified it to sci.space, psychology and bionet.molbio.evolution In article <1153@helens.Stanford.EDU> joe@hanauma.stanford.edu (Joe Dellinger) writes: >One last point: by some standards we aren't even all that successful. Where >are all the species closely related to us? We're the only species left in >our genera! And the few reasonably close relatives we still have, Gorillas >and Chimpanzees, are only just hanging on. Lucky for us we figured out Watch it: Gould also says (and I agree with him) that our species classification system is very biased. The further away from our branch of the tree we get, the more lax we are about defining species. For example, we and the Chimps are a *lot* closer morphoplogically than some invertatrae that we call "sibling species"; we're also closer than the horse and donkey, which can breed to produce a mule (or is horse+mule=donkey, whatever). The only thing stopping us from interbreeding with chimps to see if we're sibling species is that, right now, most people would be revulsed by the idea. In other words, you and I and the chimps all look the same from a slug's point of view. -- "Dad, what should I be when I grow up?" "Honest." -- Robert M. Pirsig, _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence_. Wayne Hayes INTERNET: wayne@csri.utoronto.ca CompuServe: 72401,3525
neal@tukkasotka.tut.fi (Norwitz Neal) (10/21/90)
Wayne Hayes writes: > The further away from our > branch of the tree we get, the more lax we are about defining > species. For example, we and the Chimps are a *lot* closer > morphoplogically than some invertatrae that we call "sibling species"; > we're also closer than the horse and donkey, which can breed to > produce a mule (or is horse+mule=donkey, whatever). The only thing > stopping us from interbreeding with chimps to see if we're sibling > species is that, right now, most people would be revulsed by the idea. Does anyone know if this experiment has been tried? To bread a chimp with humans would pose many ethical questions. But it could provide some answers about many topics including evolution. ***************************************************************************** Neal Norwitz neal@tut.fi What have we learned? Opinions expressed are purely your own. *****************************************************************************