The idea of hybrid species has intrigued human imagination over the centuries. These creatures are born from the crossing of two distinct species, but which share enough genetic similarities to generate living descendants.
Such hybrids rarely occur naturally, but can be created artificially, giving rise to curious cases, such as the liger (a cross between a lion and a tigress) and even the supposed “chimpanzoman”, a hybrid of a human and a chimpanzee.
A disturbing idea and an experiment
The idea of a hybrid between human and chimpanzee may seem shocking, but it has been around for decades. Russian biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov was the first person to take this proposal seriously in the early 20th century.
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In 1920, he allegedly inseminated a female chimpanzee with human sperm, although the pregnancy did not result in a successful birth.
Ivanov also tried the opposite, using chimpanzee sperm on female volunteers. However, his experiments were interrupted by the Soviet government, who exiled him to Kazakhstan.
The American case
In the United States, an evolutionary psychologist named Gordon G. Gallup Jr. claims to have heard of an experiment carried out at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in the 1920s that would have resulted in a human-chimpanzee hybrid.
According to Gallup, the pregnancy was successful, however, the hybrid baby was euthanized after a few weeks due to moral and ethical concerns.
Although Gallup mentions that his informant was a respected scientist, there is no concrete evidence to prove the existence of this bizarre experiment.
Genetic implications
From a genetic point of view, humans and chimpanzees share almost 99% of the DNAdespite having separated as species around 4 to 7 million years ago.
Even the difference in the number of chromosomes (humans have one pair less) would not, theoretically, prevent the generation of a living hybrid. An example of this is the Przewalski’s horse, which has 33 pairs of chromosomes and can produce offspring when crossed with domestic horses, which have 32 pairs.
However, to date, there is no solid evidence that a human chimpanzee ever existed. This idea remains an intriguing mystery, hovering between science and legend.
