Ethical dilemma #1: Humanzee
Aimee B. Loved
2007/11/12 06:51:36
Scientists approximate the genetic difference between man and chimpanzee to be less than the difference between horse and ass. Cross-breeding between an ass and horse is common, producing mules, though their offspring is sterile. Therefore, it is theoretically possible for a human to breed with a chimpanzee, producing a humanzee. In fact, such human-chimpanzee hybrids have been reported, though never confirmed, throughout history. So here's the question:
If a humanzee were born today, how should that offspring be handled?
If a humanzee were born today, how should that offspring be handled?


















Wow.
I honestly don't know how I feel about this. On one hand (being half human), I would want to study it, especially if it could actually speak like a human. Think of all the research that could be done! On the other, it's half animal, so I don't want to exploit it. Hmmm...
Let me think about this and get back to you.
Apparently these hybrids may already exist --> http://www.jrbooksonline.com/...
and more pictures here --> http://www.unexplained-myster...
btw - Ligers rule !
I think it is a very bad idea.
Cryptobiologists be damned
Feasibility
Humans have one chromosome fewer than other apes, since the ape chromosomes 2p and 2q have fused into a large chromosome (which contains remnants of the centromere and telomeres of the ancestral 2p and 2q) in humans [2]. Having different numbers of chromosomes is not an absolute barrier to hybridization. Similar mismatches are relatively common in existing species, a phenomenon known as chromosomal polymorphism.
The genetic structure of all the great apes, including humans, is similar. Chromosomes 6, 13, 19, 21, 22, and X are structurally the same in all great apes. 3, 11, 14, 15, 18, and 20 match between gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans. Chimps and humans match on 1, 2p, 2q, 5, 7 - 10, 12, 16, and Y as well. Some older references will include Y as a match between gorillas, chimps, and humans, but chimpanzees (including bonobos) and humans have recently been found to share a large transposition from chromosome 1 to Y that is not found in any other ape.[3]
This level of chromosomal similarity is roughly equivalent to that found in equines. Interfertility of horses and donkeys is common, although sterility of the of...
Cryptobiologists be damned
Feasibility
Humans have one chromosome fewer than other apes, since the ape chromosomes 2p and 2q have fused into a large chromosome (which contains remnants of the centromere and telomeres of the ancestral 2p and 2q) in humans [2]. Having different numbers of chromosomes is not an absolute barrier to hybridization. Similar mismatches are relatively common in existing species, a phenomenon known as chromosomal polymorphism.
The genetic structure of all the great apes, including humans, is similar. Chromosomes 6, 13, 19, 21, 22, and X are structurally the same in all great apes. 3, 11, 14, 15, 18, and 20 match between gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans. Chimps and humans match on 1, 2p, 2q, 5, 7 - 10, 12, 16, and Y as well. Some older references will include Y as a match between gorillas, chimps, and humans, but chimpanzees (including bonobos) and humans have recently been found to share a large transposition from chromosome 1 to Y that is not found in any other ape.[3]
This level of chromosomal similarity is roughly equivalent to that found in equines. Interfertility of horses and donkeys is common, although sterility of the offspring (mules) is nearly universal. Similar complexities and prevalent sterility pertain to horse-zebra hybrids, or zorses, whose chromosomal disparity is very wide, with horses typically having 32 chromosomes and zebras possessing between 44 and 62 depending upon species. In a direct parallel to the chimp-human case, the Przewalski horse (Equus przewalskii) with 33 chromosome pairs, and the domestic horse (E. caballus) with 32 chromosome pairs, have been found to be interfertile, and produce semi-fertile offspring, where male hybrids can breed with female domestic horses.[4]).
In the 1920s the Soviet biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov carried out a series of experiments to create a human/ape hybrid. At first working with human sperm and chimpanzee females, none of his attempts created a pregnancy. In 1929 he organized a set of experiments involving ape sperm and human volunteers, but was delayed by the death of his last orangutan. The next year he fell under political criticism from the Soviet government and was sentenced to exile in the Kazakh SSR during the Great Purge; he died two years later (see below).
As far back as 1977, researcher J. Michael Bedford[5] discovered that human sperm could penetrate the protective outer membranes of a gibbon egg. Among the apes, the gibbon is the farthest from humans. Bedford's paper also stated that human spermatozoa would not even attach to the zona surface of sub-hominoid primate (baboon, rhesus monkey, squirrel monkey), concluding that although the specificity of human spermatozoa is not confined to man alone, it probably is restricted to the Hominoidea.
In 2006, research suggested that after the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees diverged into two distinct lineages, inter-lineage sex was still sufficiently common that it produced fertile hybrids for around 1.2 million years after the initial split.[6]
However, despite speculation, no case of a human-chimpanzee cross has ever been confirmed to exist in modern times.
Don't lose any sleep over it....
=/
O_O
Get some rest ....
The difference with Zebra, Donkies and Horses is they are theoretically linear in evolution....
Humans and Chimps are branches from a common ancestor....
Mules, Ligers (tiger mother and lion father) and wolphins (bottle-nosed dolphin mother and false killer whale father) exist, why not humanzees?
Dont worry....
Humanzees... none to worry....
A wholphin or wolphin is a rare hybrid, born from a mating of bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus (mother), and a false killer whale Pseudorca crassidens (actually another dolphin species, taxonomically speaking). Although they have been reported to exist in the wild, there are currently only two in captivity, both at the Sea Life Park in Hawaii.
These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night...
I don't think cross-breeding a human and chimpanzee is a very good idea, either. There's a good chance that it may one day be our Republican presidential candidate. ;-P
=P
As in the words of Larry the Cable Guy...
"That right there is funny, I don't care who you are"