Animal Sexual Behaviour - Other Evidence of Interspecies Sexual Activity

Other Evidence of Interspecies Sexual Activity

Main article: Humanzee

Looking back in history, current research into human evolution tends to confirm that in some cases, interspecies sexual activity may have been responsible for the evolution of entire new species. Analysis of human and animal genes in 2006 provides strong evidence that after humans had diverged from other apes, interspecies mating nonetheless occurred regularly enough to change certain genes in the new gene pool:

A new comparison of the human and chimp genomes suggests that after the two lineages separated, they may have begun interbreeding. A principal finding is that the X chromosomes of humans and chimps appear to have diverged about 1.2 million years more recently than the other chromosomes.

The research suggests that:

There were in fact two splits between the human and chimp lineages, with the first being followed by interbreeding between the two populations and then a second split. The suggestion of a hybridization has startled paleoanthropologists, who nonetheless are "treating the new genetic data seriously."

The Washington Post comments, "If this theory proves correct, it will mean modern people are descended from something akin to chimp-human hybrids."