Ape/human Hybrids!

[Turjan]

Is this official now? Last I heard, there was still a lot of shouting and hand waving going on about this.

Things like these are always in a flow. It's more the question whether the majority follows your decision to alter the taxonomy .

Just look at things that are not questionable at all. D&D lists fungi under 'plants'. It's clear to everybody that they are much more closely related to animals than to plants and, therefore, are either listed separately or together with animals, but never with plants. Things take a while until they are commonly accepted. Usually, this takes about ten years in the scientific community. Then it might take another ten to twenty years until it reaches the daily newspapers .

 

[Mark]

Well, in your favor, they had to be getting the... materials somehow...

So the only tangible result of their experiments were an advanced breed of scientists with over-developed forearms...?

 

[Turjan]

So the only tangible result of their experiments were an advanced breed of scientists with over-developed forearms...?

Some biceps is often advantageous in scientific debate .

 

[tarchon]

Well, taxonomically, the change has already occurred-- chimpanzees are members of the genus Homo now, instead of Pan.

Speaking vaguely, to avoid offending Eric's grandmother, it would create religious conflict because of the implications on the Creation/Evolution debate. It was one of the reasons, supposedly, that the Soviets got behind the rumored hybridization experiments.

I don't recall any significant proposals to lump Homo and Pan (that's just not going to happen), but moving Pan and Gorilla into family Hominidae has a good-sized constituency, perhaps even a majority now. That's based more on the emergence of a more rigorous model of taxonomy than any startling new discoveries about the relationship between humans and apes. Orangutans though have become a little uncertain in their status since molecular genetics revealed that they're much more distant from humans than previously thought.

 

[tarchon]

So the only tangible result of their experiments were an advanced breed of scientists with over-developed forearms...?

Homo popeyi