After watching Kenneth Miller discuss the fusion of chromosome #2 I'm still wondering how this happened.. Did this "fusion" take place within an individual at some point in history and would this individual be able to mate with an individual who still had 48 chromosomes? I can't find anything online that explains it. Somebody please help me out thanks.

 

-Hunter

I think they'd still be able to mate. Because it's a fusion, no genetic material is either lost or duplicated, and also, because they just fused at the ends, the fused chromosome would be able to line up with the un-fused ones during meiosis, allowing viable gametes to be produced.

This is a pretty disgusting thought but, today would it be possible for humans and other primates to mate?

NO.

 

Well you could "mate" but no viable offspring could be produced.

Then what makes us different than the first to have the fused chromosomes?

Then what makes us different than the first to have the fused chromosomes?

 

Since then we have undergone more changes and therefore became more genetically different. Also, the chimpanzees \evolved in another direction. There was probably some geographical split between the species ( our common ancerstor). One side of the split led to us ( with the merged chromosome) and the other led to the chimpanzees. Maybe the merged chromosome enabled survival in another territory ( such as swamplands for example as suggested by the 'aquatic ape' theory). This could have led to the split which resulted in the two species.