In the 1970s, a chimpanzee named Oliver suddenly broke into the public eye, not only looking like a human.
After training, it also learned to cook on a fire.
Some say Oliver is a new species of human hybrids and chimpanzees, while others say it's the result of a genetic mutation. After comparing THE DNA sequences, scientists found that the difference between Oliver and human genes was only 1%! Oliver evolved into an adult seems to be within easy reach.
The question is why does this chimpanzee have a genetic mutation? After the mutation, Oliver, can he create a new type of species? Let's solve all kinds of mysteries.
Chimpanzees "become" people?
As early as the 1920s, Soviet biologists were secretly conducting hybridization experiments with humans and chimpanzees in private.
After a failed round, the chimpanzees after a second round of hybridization died unexpectedly. A few years later, even the researchers in charge of the experiment died of illness. Under the pressure of one-sided public opinion, the experiment also quickly reached an impasse.
No one expected that 50 years later, a chimpanzee that looked exactly like a human suddenly broke into the public eye.
It was first discovered in the jungles of Africa, and was later bought by animal trainers Janet and Frank and named oliver. Unlike chimpanzees in general, Oliver is not aggressive towards humans, looks exactly like a human, has a sparser head and chest hair than the average orangutan, and has a skull and face that are closer to human form.
In addition to his appearance, Oliver also behaves like a human, not on all fours, but walks upright on his legs.
Under the training and care of her owners Janet and Frank, Oliver also learned to watch TV and smoke cigars, like whiskey, and even became a "shoveler" for cats.
Oliver is very unsociable among chimpanzees, he is isolated by the orangutans, Oliver himself does not like to approach female orangutans, but prefers to be close to women, and even behaves gracefully in front of women, and will show a very bright smile.
The unique Oliver also appeared in Time Magazine, gradually becoming "famous", and attracting scientists from all over the world to come and see the real face. People have also discussed Oliver's origins, some people say that it is cross-born, and some people say that it is genetic mutation.
In 1975, Lawyer Michael Miller, a big fan of Oliver, bought it for $8,000. A year later, it began to be shown in many public places, which also allowed Oliver to stand in more spotlight like a star, and his every move was magnified. At the time, the mainstream media reported that Oliver was a hybrid of humans and chimpanzees because it had both the size of an orangutan and the characteristics of a person.
Is this really the case? Oliver, who looks more like a human in appearance and living habits, can be classified as a human in the strict definition of species?
Genetic mutations that create new species?
The answer can be both exciting and disappointing.
In 1977, Japanese biologists extracted some sliced tissue from Oliver and found that its DNA sequence was very similar to human genes, with a difference of only 1%. This was followed by an article published in the Los Angeles Times that suggested that Oliver might have evolved a new subspecies.
In 1996, scientists at the University of Chicago analyzed the DNA sequence in Oliver's body and found that Oliver was highly compatible with human genes.
However, its chromosome combination is exactly the same as that of ordinary chimpanzees, all of which are 24 pairs (48), while the human chromosome is 23 pairs (46). This determines that there is still a fundamental difference between Oliver and humans.
After many tests, scientists found that Oliver did not possess the most basic human ability characteristics: self-awareness and abstract thinking ability. Even if oliver is trained to do some basic arithmetic operations, it is only a reflexive imperative task, not because it really masters the ability of arithmetic. Oliver could neither make simple logical reasoning nor understand the meaning behind these symbols.
So even though Oliver resembles a human in his words and deeds and looks like a human, his essence is still a chimpanzee like a fake bag. Many of its peculiarities are just exceptions to chimpanzees' mutations on individual chromosomes.
People who discover reality and are disappointed, in an instant, beat Oliver back to his original form. After the 1980s, Oliver was transferred several times, staying in different animal training centers and circuses in the United States, and Oliver later suffered from arthritis because of upright walking, which forced him to give up walking upright and move like a normal chimpanzee with his legs and knuckles.
Later, Oliver was put in a cage because of his old age and slow movement, where he spent his ups and downs. Oliver died at the age of 55, and the average chimpanzee lives is only 35 years.
In 2005, 67 scientists from different countries formed a research consortium to jointly test and analyze the genetic arrangement of chimpanzees, and carefully compared with human genes, and found that the coincidence rate of human and chimpanzee DNA arrangement reached more than 96%! In other words, a 96% coincidence rate means that the genetic differences between humans and chimpanzees are only 10 times different in the genomes between two human bodies. But at the same time, on chromosomes, there are still essential differences between humans and chimpanzees.
This experiment revealed that any slight difference in genetic mutations would manifest as differences in the appearance of organisms, directly affecting or altering the appearance and habits of organisms. Occasional genetic changes will only make it slightly different from the species to which it belongs, but it will not create a new species that has never been seen before.
Humans and chimpanzees: the insurmountable divide
We generally have 100 trillion cells in our bodies, and each cell has 3 billion base pairs arranged on their DNA. Even if Oliver's genes are only 1 percent different from humans, there are 30 million distinct base pairs on each cell. If you want to cross this 1% limit,
It is necessary to continue to mutate tens of millions of times on a controllable basis, so that there may be an extremely small possibility of infinite coincidence with human genes, but never to achieve complete coincidence.
In addition, the brain capacity of humans and chimpanzees is also very different. The human brain has a brain capacity of 1350 milliliters, which is 5 times that of chimpanzees, and the characteristics of human brain evolution have unexplained jumps, while chimpanzees' brains evolve too slowly.
On the road of biological evolution, there are too many accidents and uncertainties, and it is this seemingly small enough to be negligible 1%,
But let the chimpanzees and humans, always have an insurmountable gap.
The mysterious laws of nature allow each species to develop and evolve according to its own trajectory, and even if there is a random change in the genetic sequence, it is within the normal and safe range, and it will not randomly "change" a new species. Oliver was just an accident in a genetic mutation, not a miracle of species evolution. It can only be a chimpanzee, and it is unlikely to become a human.
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Author: Yi Nian Review: Xiao Yang Proofreader: Plum