RE: The strange case for human beings having descended from ....?
A simple answer about hybridization sums it up. The "hybrids" you're talking about is a vague term. Either cross-breeds within species, or cross-breeds between species is the more concise terminology.
But I'm never satisfied with short answers. :^)
The thing with cross-breeds between species is that they are almost always likely to never live past conception as long, as the species are not in the same taxonomic family. If they are in the same taxonomic family, then it becomes varied with two outcomes: Infertile/sterile off-spring, or in the rare occasion they breed fertile/non-sterile off-spring (this is something that only happens when species are close enough in evolutionary divergence to have similarities in DNA to their predecessor/progenitor species).
Cross-breeding within species is something that we see all the time with dogs, humans, domesticated cats, etc...because they're all still homo-sapien, Felis catus, Canis lupus familiaris, etc etc...
But I enjoyed reading your post regardless. :^)
thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts!!!
hmmm good point, it's all about how you define it. But what you're really saying is that regardless of definitions the more different two critters are different the more rare it is to get any viable young from them, and yeah I think that is super true!!
One of the things about backcrossing that's kinda cool is that it can improve fertility. So if a random weird lifeform is able to live long enough to breed, it gets easier and easier down the line.
There's a couple of quotes that I really enjoy.
I have no idea where it comes from, but I do appreciate it...after all taxonomic orders are contrivances of humans, and even if we are bringing a substantial amount of insight, and pattern recognition to bear, I do think it is ever foolish to consider our own machinations as law.
Also, I really appreciate this by Rupert Sheldrake
I wouldn't call explaining phenomena as "law", it's just our silly minds trying to make sense of reality in whatever possible way we can.
It definitely holds predictive capabilities, so I'll accept it. :^) However, there is a much better discipline that is now an addition to taxonomy; Cladistics. I don't know much about it on the same level I do taxonomy, but I know taxonomy now requires it to function much more properly in describing things.