My human biology textbook says it may even be possible for humans and chimpanzees to interbreed. Is this true?

The relationship between humans and chimps is remarkably close, nearly identical in terms of DNA, so according to my textbook, some biologists believe it's possible to interbeed, though they would produce sterile offspring. Is it possible, and if so, why has nobody artificially inseminated chimpanzees to find out?My human biology textbook says it may even be possible for humans and chimpanzees to interbreed. Is this true?
Offspring fertility is not the criterion for species differentiation. A number of species can crossbreed and produce fertile hybrids - best known ones are probably the various birds that do it (especially among the ducks). Species determination is a fairly arbitrary decision based more on reproductive isolation than offspring qualities.

Anyway, about this idea of crossbreeding - maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't. Degree of DNA similarity is suggestive, but not conclusive, since there may be critical areas of difference among those small variations. As to why nobody has tried: that's a sort of squirm-inducing idea, and I suspect that most of us aren't too crazy about looking into it much. Anyway, would it tell you very much that was interesting, new and useful? I don't know.
They say that species can't interbreed, but horses and donkeys make mules and someone mentioned the Ligers. Also, early man ie homo sapiens and Neanderthals have mated and produced our ancestors (at least in one theory) and they were of different species.My human biology textbook says it may even be possible for humans and chimpanzees to interbreed. Is this true?
The Humanzee (also known as the Chuman, or Manpanzee) is a hypothetical chimpanzee/human hybrid. Chimpanzees and humans are very closely related (95% of their DNA sequence, and 99% of coding DNA sequences in common [1]), leading to contested speculation that a hybrid is possible, though no specimen has ever been confirmed.



[edit] Etymology



In spite of the usual convention of portmanteau words to describe hybrids, there is no consensus as to which word to use, "chuman" or "humanzee" in popular speech. Geneticists adhere to the portmanteau word convention to indicate which species is the sire.[citation needed] (cf. tigon/liger) This is important because of the phenomenon of genomic imprinting where genes are expressed differently depending on which parent contributed them. Hybrids are named according to the convention first part of sire's name + second part of dam's name (except where the result is unwieldy). For geneticists, "Chuman" therefore refers to a hybrid of male chimpanzee and female human, while "Humanzee" or "manpanzee" refers to a hybrid of male human and female chimpanzee.



[edit] 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.



[edit] The Ivanov experiments







In 1924, while working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, Ivanov obtained permission from the Institute's directors to use its experimental primate station in Kindia, French Guinea, for such an experiment. Ivanov attempted to gain backing for his project from the Soviet government.

Ivanov reached Conakry in November 1926 accompanied by his son, also named Ilya, who would assist him in his experiments. Ivanov supervised the capture of adult chimpanzees in the interior of the colony, which were brought to Conakry and kept in cages in the botanical gardens. On February 28, 1927, Ivanov artificially inseminated two female chimpanzees with human sperm (not his own or his son's). On June 25, he injected a third chimpanzee with human sperm. The Ivanovs left Africa in July with thirteen chimps, including the three used in his experiments. They already knew before leaving that the first two chimpanzees had failed to become pregnant. The third died in France, and was also found not to have been pregnant. The remaining chimps were sent to a new primate station at Sukhumi.



[edit] Rumored humanzees

There have been occasional reports and rumors of humanzees throughout history. St. Peter Damian, in his 11th century De bono religiosi status et variorum animatium tropologia, tells of a Count Gulielmus whose pet ape became his wife's lover. One day the ape became "mad with jealousy" on seeing the count lying with his wife and it fatally attacked him. Damian claims he was told about this incident by Pope Alexander II and shown a creature named "Maimo", which was supposed to be the offspring of the countess and the ape. It has been mentioned that Maimo was most likely a retarded human child.
Speaking from experiance, I've had no luck what-so-ever in getting my chimp pregnant. Maybe it's my sperm count......My human biology textbook says it may even be possible for humans and chimpanzees to interbreed. Is this true?
No thats not possible. two different species can not breed.
I'm not sure. Now, we have here the potential to find out that chimps and humans are actually the same species. If you can produce a chimp-human hybrid, that doesn't necessarily mean that chimps and humans are the same species. (You're right, as we understand it, a chimp-human hybrid would be sterile.) However, if a chimp-human hybrid proved to be fertile, then chimps and humans would be the same species.



Since Ligers/Tigons (can't remember which) proved to be fertile, Tigers and Lions are the same species so Tigons/Ligers aren't hybrids.



True hybrids are barren.
Humans have 46 chromosomes and Chimps have 48. This would make it almost impossible to produce progeny.



c-ya
As you say, some do but more dont. If you're really so interested, why don't you volunteer to be a sperm donor in the experiment?
Stalinist Russia did a few experiments that were unsuccessful. Just because something is possible, doesn't make it worth doing. The ethical implications far outweigh any knowledge that would be gained.
False. Throw away your textbook. It sucks.
Which textbook is that? I would like to see exactly what it says. I majored in Evolutionary Anthropology and never read anything like that. You have to be careful about 'some biologists.' Apparently 'some biologists' believe evolution isn't real.
Yes my father-in-law did
I don't think so!! Monkeys and us are two completely different things. Even though we have some things in common, it's doesn't mean we came from them or that we can produce something from 'interbreeding' with them. It's like saying an apple cat and dog are similar because they have fur, four legs, ears, and tails. But it doesn't mean they can make little pupcats. They are totally different. Same with us and monkeys.
why dont you go find out