HUMANS and chimpanzees did not gradually evolve into different species by living geographically apart, as textbooks suggest. Our isolation from chimps occurred within our own chromosomes, not across the plains of Africa, says a team who compared human and chimp DNA.
The study gives rise to the theory that the chromosomes of our common ancestors became accidentally rearranged during reproduction, and this gradually led to genetic “no-go” zones between proto-humans and proto-chimps. The two could still mate, and swap genes between compatible parts of their chromosomes, but any mutations within non-compatible regions that conferred an evolutionary advantage would have been…
