Scientists from the USA crossed humans and chimpanzees 100 years ago, but the hybrid had to be euthanized
An expert in the field of evolutionary psychology, Gordon Gallup, claims that scientists from the United States managed to successfully crossbreed humans and chimpanzees 100 years ago. But the scientists killed the humanze that was born.
Gordon Gallup Jr., creator of the famous mirror test, which proved that primates can recognize their own reflection in the mirror, coined the term “humanzee” to refer to the human-chimpanzee hybrid. Gallup said that the fruit of a cross between a human and a primate was born in a laboratory in Orange Park, Florida, USA. Gallup was told about this by his university professor who worked at the institution where the humanzee was born.
Another attempt to create a humanzee was also made in the 1920s by Russian biologist Ilya Ivanov. He tried to create a human-chimpanzee hybrid by injecting human sperm into a female primate.
Another reported case occurred in China in 1967. The female primate became pregnant with the hybrid but died after the scientists were forced to abandon the project.
In the 1970s, Gallup's term "humanzee" became widely known due to the appearance of a creature named Oliver. The strange male chimpanzee had no hair on his chest or head, walked on his hind legs and had an “all too human appearance.”
They argued that Oliver is a true hybrid of a human and a chimpanzee and has 47 chromosomes (the average between a human, who has 46, and a chimpanzee, who has 48). But a DNA test carried out in the 2000s showed that he still had 48 chromosomes, like an ordinary chimpanzee. Oliver died in 2012 at the age of 55.
Gallup claims that humans can be interbred not only with chimpanzees, but also with other primates, such as gorillas and orangutans.