There are different ways to measure genetic distance, but if take a simplified model and just use “years since the lines split”, then look at camels and llamas, which split ~10MYA. It’s probably more accurate to measure “number of generations”, especially since apes are slow breeders, but this just makes the numbers look even more in favor of hybridization between ape species.
It would be interesting to see what the result of attempted gorilla/chimp hybrids would be. A null result wouldn’t tell us for certain that chimp/human hybrids was impossible, but a successful interbreeding would be highly suggestive that such hybrids were possible.
Chimpanzees are a bit too aggressive, sure, but what about Bonobos? From what I heard on 60 Minutes (terrible source, I know, but it’s in my recent memory), they are just as closely related to humans, and comparatively docile in nature. Bonobo sexual activity patterns are fairly different too.
Not a typo. The exclamation mark is made by holding down the shift key and the 1. The 1 in a string of exclamation marks mimics someone typing so excitedly that his finger keeps coming off the shift key. It is often done for satiric effect lately.
I don’t know about chimps, but I have heard of humans pimping out a shaved female orangutan. Which has all of the same points against it as sex with chimps, but that apparently doesn’t stop it from happening.
Yes, I’ve seen that, too. Generally in threads on this very topic!
But, Orangs are mostly solitary animals, whereas chimps are social animals that live in strictly hierarchical groups. Orangs can be aggressive, especially males, but a female orang raised by humans would not be aggressive in the same way a chimp would.
Goodall writes about just such an incident in which a female staff member is raped by an orangutan. It is fairly easy to Google, click on the image of the written passage to enlarge it:
