In article <Pine.SUN.3.90.950821083818.2011A-100000 at possum>,
Jim Cummins <cummins at POSSUM.MURDOCH.EDU.AU> wrote:
[lots of good stuff deleted for brevity]
>may well be historical examples of human-ape hybrids (we differ from
>Chimpanzees by only a fraction of our genome) but such hybrids would
>almost certainly be sterile through chromosomal imbalance.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
While chromosomal inbalance may well be the basis of the hybrid sterility
among primates, that is certainly not always the case.
In Drosophila - that other "crown of creation" - interspecific hybrid
sterility is caused by geneic interaction. (References supplied
on request). I wonder if chromosomal imbalance is even
generally the cause of incompatibility between some closely
related mammalian species.
-Eric
