
Re: Did Chimp and Human Ancestors Interbreed?
The way I'm reading it....9 million years ago our ancestors began branching off in perhaps two different directions. Who knows the cause, perhaps geographic isolation.
For millions of years these two unique groups maintained the ability to breed and some members of the two populations did in fact breed, which led to the creation of a hybrid.
Around 4 million years ago speciation occured with these two different populations. At this point interbreeding isn't possible.