  We argue that the emission of hadrons with transverse momentum up to about 5
GeV/c in central relativistic heavy ion collisions is dominated by
recombination, rather than fragmentation of partons. This mechanism provides a
natural explanation for the observed constant baryon-to-meson ratio of about
one and the apparent lack of a nuclear suppression of the baryon yield in this
momentum range. Fragmentation becomes dominant at higher transverse momentum,
but the transition point is delayed by the energy loss of fast partons in dense
matter.
