Similarity between apes and humans

[desertrat]

Being genetically very similar would it be possible for humans and apes to breed?

[incitatus]

Very unlikely....but not necessarily impossible. One could certainly hybridise artificially (IVF). The offspring, if viable, would be sterile, however. Mules always are.

[artisan]

I don't think that's very likely within the next fifty years.

[incitatus]

Its actually doable now, I just dont think anyone wants to....I mean what would be the point?

[KEJ2000]

I believe it is not possible for humans and apes to create a fertilized egg together. They might be able to pretend to mate in the mechanical sense, but their sperm and egg cells would not be able to unite to form another living cell. You know how animals are organized by zoologists into different "species", among other groups such as kingdoms, phylums, and classes? For example, humans have the genus and species of "Homo sapiens". What defines animals as belonging to different species is their *inability to breed with one another*. A species is defined as a set of living organisms that are able to breed with one another and unable to breed with any others. Thus, because apes are not also of the species "sapiens" (are they even of the same genus, "Homo"? I don't recall for sure, but I don't think so), we can all automatically tell in advance that they would be unable to successfully breed with humans. Zoologists planned their classification system that way-- to reveal a lot of information just on the basis of the labels. Other Answerbank users who studied advanced biology or zoology, please back me up on this!!!