Many genetic changes happened. One involved the joining of two"ape" chromosomes (they have 24 pairs of chromosomes) end to end tomake human chromosome #1 (we have 23 pairs of chromosomes, butstill have about the same amount of genetic material). This wouldhave made it impossible for the "new" humans to successfully breedwith their most recent prehuman ancestors, even though both peoplesprobably had identical appearance and lived together for severalgenerations of both.