He was certainly an odd case!

So it turns out he was just a chimp, who loved human behaviour.

What an awesome story he has.

yeah crazy cool right! He is a Chimp for sure, but his DNA has very distinct and obvious difference than other Chimpanzee. Is over all behavior could only be described as human like, he shook your hand, but grabbed your elbow to welcome you. He had this crush. Crazy man

Well, since our ancestors managed to still be interbreeding with chimps and bonobos for sometime, it could very easily be that chimps and bonobos are just a little behind us. But that they have exactly the same possibilities for mutational body and brain changes that we have.

Because changes come about due to challenges, and most of the challenges that made our ancestors changed were challenges to THOUGHT....it seems entirely possible that those animals that we interact with and then breed amoungst each other are more likely to start changing too. Because their interact with us challenges THEIR thoughts, which in turn changes them. Better survival mechanisms developed due to adaptation to a very challenging situation which can be dealt with by thought.

I fully expect to see those animals we interact with on a constant basis to show mind changes that precipatate through their genomes. Cats, Dogs, Rats....but most of all, the other homo simians.

Some of the "cultural" differences in our own make up could be explained as simple adaptive differences that can be reflected by our most similar species siblings. The chimpanzees and the bonobos. They are immensely similar to each other, and to us, and yet exhibit very different "culture" adaptations.

Consider that many of the changes to species over time have been changes to accomodate some change in their environment. That a singluar change that could be "hard coded" from a couple of individuals with some mutational difference then precipatates through the population.

Our ancestors seem to have been not well adapted in body to the sudden changes that occured in their enviroment. Multiple changes that happened fairly quickly, and caused a significant reduction in the number of individuals breeding multiple times. A "hard coded" change - an change to something that could be instinctual - was not a useful survival technique. The changes to the environment on our soft slow bodies could only be dealt with through non-instinctual behaviours. Thought. Reasoning. Adaptive minds.

Because we constantly now change our environment, and challenge the animals that are around us they are now ALSO coming into contact with a similar environmental force. A force that defies reliance on instinctual behaviours, because that force changes constantly.

Dogs have dealt with this by literally altering their DNA to become super hypervariable, with the ability to truncate genetically linked behaviours so as to be adaptive to living with humans. That's AMAZING when you think about it.

We impact the environment, and we are the environmental factor that changes the genetic "goal posts" of other species. Simply by existing, we will challenge and therefore change the species on this planet. In some cases that will mean extinction. But for the species that have highly adaptive genetics or behaviour, it means that those species will start to change rapidly to accomodate. Like the insects have already started to do. One of those changes that is entirely possible (and our existence proves it is possible) is that some of them will begin to think beyond instinct. Just to survive being on the World with us.

The world is not static. Genes are not static. We are distinctly not static. Our impact is going to drive species change. That our siblings are showing adaptive changes similar to ours should be EXPECTED.

The question then becomes - what the hell are we going to do when we take responsibility for the fact that our "not human" companion/sibling species start showing signs of intellect, conscious thought, etc because of us?

Originally posted by Aeons
The question then becomes - what the hell are we going to do when we take responsibility for the fact that our "not human" companion/sibling species start showing signs of intellect, conscious thought, etc because of us?

Id rephrase that question to "what do we do when we finally realise that our 'non human' animal brethren always had intellect and conscious thought before we even began thinking we where the only ones out of all of them to do so?".

Im around animals 24/7 with 8 cats, a horse, a neighbors dog... a garden laden with birds, and bushs and flowering trees covered in insects of all kinds... heck I even spend parts of my day watching lots of praying mantis's outside the window going about their hunting and interacting (we got alot of prey mantis around our property). Theres more than just mindless automatic reaction going on behind those eyes. Although i do believe that it is or at least it should be humanities job to express and develope the potential of all other life forms.

All animals are created equally and that includes old mankind, even if one specific species seems to have a rather enlarged self view of itself. Problem is if you start to think about that you realise just how rough we treat a good majority of the other life forms on this planet, who apart from shape and varying level of conciousness are no different than ourselves.

Anyway to the OP nice to bring old Oliver up, Oliver was one of my first interests in cryptozoology. Was disheartening to learn he was just an ordinary if extra ordinary chimp about 8 years ago but he's still one of the best curiosities.

Thing is, i was under the impression he had died by now?... since he was 40 or so a good number of years ago (whats the highest lifespan for a chimp usually?) and there was if I remember an issue with money funding at Primarily Primates where he was being looked after?.. although I could be wrong on that. Think I'll go do a little research and find out if their still in business.

Edit:- looks like my clock was off, years, a decades pffft whats the difference, good to see he's still alive and well and happy still. Forgot I got that Humanzee Doco on tape, think ill go pull it out and watch it again.


[edit on 24-2-2009 by BigfootNZ]

Recently watched the youtube video and had to see if a topic was covered about it on ATS and sure enough it has been discussed numerous times.

Facinating, seems the scientists are certain it was either a genetic mutation or a completely different sub species of chimp...

This is really old news. The evolutionists have already went nuts over this one. Thank god we found Oliver!

That is the first time I have heard of oliver. Maybe he is a undiscovered species of ape, or maybe they are not telling the whole story of how he came to be. Cool post none the less tho. Thanx for sharein

Originally posted by UnitedSatesofFreemasons
yeah crazy cool right! He is a Chimp for sure, but his DNA has very distinct

No it wasn't. No need to spread these falls things anymore.

here's a picture of Oliver for those interested!



its such an intriguing case... maybe hes a freak version of a monkey just like some humans are hairy or ape-like oliver was human like