Half-chimps!

Check out this article from The Boston Globe.

The article, titled "Humans, Chimps May Have Bred After Split," begins as follows:

Boston scientists released a provocative report yesterday that challenges the timeline of human evolution and suggests that human ancestors bred with chimpanzee ancestors long after they had initially separated into two species.


Later in the article, there is the following:

Pilbeam helped discover an early human ancestor known as Toumai, which walked on two legs and is thought to have lived in present-day Chad 6.5 million to 7.4 million years ago. The new report, published in today's issue of the journal Nature, estimates that final break between the human and chimpanzee species did not come until 6.3 million years ago at the earliest, and probably less than 5.4 million years ago.

This contradiction could be resolved, Reich said, if early creatures like Toumai then interbred with chimpanzee ancestors, leaving a population of hybrids that developed into today's humans.


Now, it is far from clear that this is actually what happened (some issues are raised in the articles), but the possibility is extremely intriguing, and I have a warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart just knowing how certain people's stomachs are churning now. I am extremely happy that this possibility has been raised, and very much I look forward to future research exploring this possibility!