Featured Image Credit: John Giustina / Westend61 / Getty
Today, human-animal hybridisation remains just as taboo as in the 20th century. Zebras and horses (zebroids), tigers and lions (ligers), and camels and llamas (camas) aren't creations that have caused a lot of outrage. But getting a human involved in the crossbreed process has caused some concern.
Throughout the years, scientists have conducted many experiments to create a human-chimpanzee hybrid known as a 'humanzee'.
This idea became most famously associated with late Soviet biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov, who made controversial attempts to create a human-ape hybrid in the 1920s.
From 1910, Ivanov became obsessed with the idea of human-ape hybrids, believing they would be stronger, smarter and more resistant to disease than pure humans or animals.
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However, his efforts weren't successful due to a mix of ethical concerns and a lack of ape semen.
But he isn’t the only scientist who has tried to explore this unusual corner of science.
Evolutionary psychologist Gordon Gallup, who developed the mirror test for primate ‘self-recognition,' coined the term ‘humanzee’ to describe a human-chimp crossbreed.
Gallup claimed that a human-chimp hybrid was actually born in a lab where he used to work in Orange Park, Florida. But, it was euthanised quite quickly afterwards by the group of shocked and panicked researchers.
Decades after the incident, Gallup told The Sun: “One of the most interesting cases involved an attempt which was made back in the 1920s in what was the first primate research centre established in the US in Orange Park, Florida.
"They inseminated a female chimpanzee with human semen from an undisclosed donor and claimed not only that pregnancy occurred but the pregnancy went full term and resulted in a live birth."
At this point, the reality of the situation sank in and the scientists began to question the moral implications of their actions.
"In the matter of days, or a few weeks, they began to consider the moral and ethical considerations and the infant was euthanised.”
Gallup mentioned that the professor who told him worked at the centre until it moved to another university in Atlanta, Georgia in 1930.
The search for “humanzee” hybrids goes on with scientists believing that they could have implications for medical advancements such as growing human organs for transplant in monkeys.
In 2019, a team from the US, China and Spain managed to create a human-monkey embryo that lived for 20 days before being destroyed.
But now modern research into similar chimeras includes safety measures to ensure that they never reach full gestation.
