[SunkenCiv]

Chimps (also gibbons, gorillas, and orangutans) have 24 chromosome pairs, another impediment to successful reproduction with a human co-parent. :')

• Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley (pp 23-24)

  "For thirty years, nobody disputed this 'fact'. One group of scientists abandoned their experiments on human liver cells because they could only find twenty-three pairs of chromosomes in each cell. Another researcher invented a method of separating the chromosomes, but still he thought he saw twenty-four pairs. It was not until 1955, when an Indonesian named Joe-Hin Tjio travelled from Spain to Sweden to work with Albert Levan, that the truth dawned. Tjio and Levan, using better techniques, plainly saw twenty-three pairs. They even went back and counted twenty-three pairs in photographs in books where the caption stated that there were twenty-four pairs. There are none so blind as do not wish to see."

The correct number of chromosomes could have been discerned, one would think, during the almost 35 years involved in the events above. The most daunting realization is that the double heliacal form of DNA was discerned in 1953, two years before this chromosome count was corrected.

[gleeaikin]

So do chimps et al have 24 pairs, or were they also miscounted? And do you know the situation for Bonobos? I seem to recall a similar story regarding Aristotle regarding the number of teeth horses have. There were great philosophical arguments supporting different numbers, and then Aristotle said they should just count them.