I've seen a programme about oliver, and it really was amazing, he certainly seems very very human like . The picture in the link is one of him at an older age. in some of the film footage as a younger chimp his face really does have human like features. I couldn't belive what I was seeing when I watched it. At the end of the documentary I think they found him in some sort of sanctuary , it was quite sad because he is now blind, but still walks upright and doesn't mix with other chimps.I think that a lot of opportunities were lost to study him over the years so it will be interesting if they come up with anything new now.

I saw the same program on Oliver. They took him to Japan to do DNA testing on him.
The results should that he was more chimp-like then human, but not completely chimp either.

I don't think you could call him a missing link, maybe a mutant.

I’ve heard of other apes and chimps like this one of them can use sign language to communicate but has shown more intelligence by making up new words or something if my mate comes online I'll ask him and post the information.

Oliver's DNA was retested a few years back before he died, and it was found that he had the same number of chromosomes as other chimps, although his DNA profile suggested he was from a distinct subgroup, maybe a population that had been isolated from other chimps long enough to evolve different traits. This is from a documentary that was a few months back, Discovery Channel I think. The scariest part of the documentary was a discussion of whether Oliver was the product of cross-species breeding. Supposedly (and this is "them" speaking here, "them" as in the "them" who always spread such stories and urban legends), in China during the Cultural Revolution a state-run lab had successfully inpregnated a female chimp with a hybrid chimp-human embryo, but the lab was abandoned during riots and the chimp died of neglect. I'll dig around and see if I can find another source on that, although the idea really creeps me out.

Originally posted by MsCGA
The scariest part of the documentary was a discussion of whether Oliver was the product of cross-species breeding. Supposedly (and this is "them" speaking here, "them" as in the "them" who always spread such stories and urban legends), in China during the Cultural Revolution a state-run lab had successfully inpregnated a female chimp with a hybrid chimp-human embryo, but the lab was abandoned during riots and the chimp died of neglect. I'll dig around and see if I can find another source on that, although the idea really creeps me out.

As an anthropologist I would be extremely interested to read something about that.....

There was a post not too long ago in ATSNN about a primate that had stomach surgery and immediately afterwards began walking upright...

My take on this is that this is some kind of recessive gene that only shows up in a very acute sub-population of primates. It's almost like a survival gene....but as they mentioned in the story, Oliver has seperated himself from the rest of his clan, and although he does have a mate, this awkward trait prohibits him from the possibility of spreading it to more of his species due to his outcast status. Chances are the fact that he does have a mate proves why this is such a limited trait....as it only is passed down to a select few and even then is simply a recessive gene that either is stuck as genotype (which provides more opportunity for spreading) or phenotype (which proveds more opportunity for witnessing).

Awesome stuff tho - No doubt once he passes away primatologists will be all over his brain and skeletal structure....

My BA is in Anthropology, and primates are an interest of mine. I'm pretty sure at the end of the doc. I watched they said Oliver had already passed away, I know he was living at a sanctuary in Texas after being rescued from a lab (aren't we humans great, find something unusual and special and send it off to be exploited), and there was no mention of what had happened to his remains. But I'm sure his remains will be studied, and here's hoping we find out more.

Actually, Oliver developed arthritis in his old age, and stopped walking upright, as it hurt his hips.

Bonobos often walk upright, anyhow.

Originally posted by MsCGA
My BA is in Anthropology

Sweet! I've got the count on anthropologists down to 3 here on ATS - lol - we're growing!

(aren't we humans great, find something unusual and special and send it off to be exploited)

HA! - no doubt....Kennwick Man.....

Originally posted by WingedWolf
Bonobos often walk upright, anyhow.

Interesting...I didn't know that - I'm not too big into primatology, comparatively speaking....just try and take in what I kind - it's interesintg tho that Bonobos, from what I remember, are also the only other species of primate that have sex for pleasure - they're catching up - lol

[edit on 8/6/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

I heard about the Humanzees Hybrid story before on some show as was wondering since we have a couple anthropologists here I would ask.

Are Humans and chimpazees close enough that a Hybrid could be made?

A biologist could probably be more helpful here, but since I'm new I don't know any on this BB. I guess it could be, since lions and tigers can be mated to make hybrids, and of course horses and donkeys, but since there's a different number of chromosomes involved, the result would probably have an odd number of chromosomes and would most likely be sterile. (I am GROSSLY oversimplfying here....my background is not in biology, and there are many nuances of this question that elude me)
In the documentary we were discussing about Oliver, it is mentioned that such hybrids have been achieved, but kept very quiet. But that should just be treated as rumor, because there were no sources cited, no exact dates, etc.

Are Humans and chimpazees close enough that a Hybrid could be made?

Sounds like a far fetched idea however i would think it might be possible, humans have 46 chomosomes, chimps have 48 , downsyndrome children have 47 chromosomes so best guess you would end up with a downsyndrome chimp. ( not very promissing ) As far as mutations go i myslef i guess fall in that category , as i said humans have 46 chromosomes, i have 46 and 1/2. On the eleveth pair of chromosomes i have the material for a 47th chromosome however it didnt split , its just sitting there and producing no ill effects other then i am at a higher rate of having a downs child. I think if i remember correctly its called something like translocation but since it didnt cuase any ill effects to me i never really cared about it but i guess it does make me a mutant.

AS for the primate that started walking up right after the stomach problems i can exlplain that eaisly. He had probelms with his stomach and allmost died , his stomach is still sore and in his normal walking position it hurts to walk so he walks up right becuase his stomach is sore.

the latest date i saw on those articles was 1998 and they said that he would get dna and or chromosme testing done soon. well does anyone have any recent information on this or know the results of oliver's dna testing?



i did a google on it and the most recent thing i found was 98'