Oliver, the "human chimp"
From Wikipedia: Oliver was a performing chimp who was once promoted as a missing link, or a “Humanzee” (a human-chimp hybrid). However, despite his somewhat unusual appearance and behavior, Oliver is, genetically speaking, a normal chimpanzee. Anthropologist David J. Daegling (in Carroll 2005) writes:
“‘Oliver’ is a habitually bipedal ape that has captured the imagination of both laypeople and scientists. He has been touted as a relict australopithecine, a bigfoot, or even the result of a clandestine human-chimp hybridization experiment. After years of lively debate, Oliver’s DNA was sampled to settle the issue and perhaps provide us with a breathing version of the missing link. The results are in … and, alas, Oliver is just a standard-issue chimpanzee with a penchant for walking.”
Watch above the first part of a documentary on the subject. The rest can be seen on haha.nu: Oliver the Chimp.
Posted in Criptozoology,Fortean | 1 comment
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“Oliver is just a standard-issue chimpanzee with a penchant for walking.”
That definition fits humans, too.
I think it’s a pretty remarkable achievement for a chimp, so there’s no “just” about it.
At one time, Oliver was described as a Bonobo, rather than a standard chimp. I wonder if they ever settled the issue?