Can humans and gorillas have offspring? Since man evolved from apes, why can't man have offspring with apes? This is an idea that Ilya Ivanov, a famous Soviet biologist in the last century, came up with.
Since the idea came to him, more and more ideas have come to Ilya Ivanov, and finally he has made a decision - he wants to test his idea with experiments.
And this experiment was the craziest and most dehumanizing human-animal hybrid experiment in the Soviet Union of the last century.
The Soviet "ape-man" program: madness or misinformation?
In the first half of the 20th century, rumors were rife that Soviet scientists were trying to breed "ape-man" through human-animal hybridization.
The main character of this story is reproductive biologist Ilya Ivanov.
According to rumors, he received funding from the Soviet government to try to conduct human-ape hybrid experiments in Africa and then in the Soviet Union.
Speaking of Ilya Ivanov, he was a very famous reproductive scientist in the USSR.
Before the "ape-man" experiments, the horses he bred using artificial crossbreeding techniques were genetically very high-quality, which greatly increased the combat capabilities of Soviet soldiers.
And these horses made Ivanov's status in the biological community rise, and for a while he was even praised as a "god".
But Ivanov was not satisfied, and even had an even more insane idea, and he won the support of the Soviet government under the banner of creating a "new humanity" for the Soviet Union, which was far beyond ordinary people.
In 1926, Ivanov came to Guinea with the start-up fund.
At first, he didn't have the idea of experimenting with humans, but thought of using a female chimpanzee as a mother to inject sperm from a human male for artificial insemination.
He purchased 3 female orangutans from the local area, and after successfully injecting local human sperm, he began the human-ape hybrid experiment.
But a month after artificial insemination of orangutans, the experiment did not progress.
For more than a year, Ivanov tried various methods, but the mother orangutan showed no signs of conception.
This made the pretentious Ivanov feel an unprecedented blow, but he still insisted on his idea, and suddenly he had a flash of inspiration, the female orangutan could not give birth to an "ape-man", what about the human female?
Once such an idea was born, Ivanov could no longer suppress it, and when he first proposed to use human women to conceive "ape-man", he was opposed by biologists from all over the world.
Such an idea is simply against human morality!
At that time, Guinea was a French colony, and when they learned of Ivanov's idea, the French generals in Guinea also angrily said that if Ivanov dared to do this, he would shoot Ivanov directly.
However, Ivanov did not realize that he had lost his way, but instead had a sense of "the world is drunk and I am sober", and even risked his life to recruit female volunteers in Guinea with high salaries.
But such an experiment was so shocking that no woman wanted to become a volunteer, no matter how much money Ivanov gave.
Subsequently, the French colonial government intervened and expelled Ivanov from Guinea.
Ivanov, who returned to the Soviet Union, did not give up, he did not know how to move the Soviet government, not only received financial and technical support, but also recruited five female volunteers.
At that time, Ivanov could be described as "a spring breeze with a proud horse's hoof".
In 1929, with the support of the Soviet government, he began experiments in the Soviet Union with human women as the mother, but this time also ended in failure.
But Ivanov never had the possibility of coming again, because of the current situation in the Soviet Union at that time, many scientists were exiled, and Ivanov was no exception.
When he came back, he died of depression not long after.
Oliver: An "alternative" chimpanzee
In the 60s of the 20th century, a chimpanzee named Oliver caused a huge sensation in the United States because of his unique appearance and behavior.
Its bald head, almost upright gait, and gentler call are reminiscent of the legendary "ape-man" image.
In 1960, Oliver was purchased from Congo by an animal trainer couple when he was only two years old.
At first, the couple just wanted to use it as a circus show animal, but it soon became clear that Oliver was markedly different from the average chimpanzee.
Compared to his counterpart, Oliver has very little head hair and looks like a balding human.
It is also different from the common four-legged crawling chimpanzee, but walks mostly upright.
Oliver's mouth is less prominent, and his facial features look more human, which makes his first impression more like a "wild man" than a chimpanzee.
In addition to the form, Oliver also behaves in a peculiar way, learning to use tools and simply serving the keepers.
Oliver also mimics human habits, such as smoking, drinking, etc.
This highly "humane" behavior is rare among chimpanzee populations.
Because of Oliver's uniqueness, it quickly became the number one star of the circus.
Trainers advertise it as an "ape-man", attracting countless tourists to see its charms.
For a time, rumors were rampant that it was a human-ape hybrid.
To uncover Oliver's secrets, scientists tested him genetically.
At first, Japanese scholars claimed that it had 47 chromosomes, somewhere between a human and a chimpanzee.
However, in 1996, the results of a retest at the University of Chicago in the United States unexpectedly revealed that Oliver's chromosome count was completely normal, consistent with 48 chromosomes with chimpanzees.
Clearly, Oliver's appearance and behavior are just individual variations, not the result of human-oranoid crossing.
It has been with people for a long time, and has only acquired some special skills through environmental science, and does not belong to a new species.
Terran Origins: DNA Decrypts Our "Ancestors"
Today, in the 21st century, scientists have more advanced tools to study the mystery of human origins.
With the development of DNA technology, scientists can more accurately analyze the genetic connections of different races and find out the true face of our "ancestors".
Through a large-scale comparison of human mitochondrial DNA on a global scale, scientists have concluded that the earliest female ancestors of all humans lived in northeastern Africa, about 200,000 years ago.
The male Y chromosome shows that the common "paternal ancestor" of modern humans lived in West Africa, about 330,000 years ago.
The results of DNA research are highly consistent with the African origin theory.
This confirms that we humans may have come from Africa, where ancient humans were our closest "ancestors" by blood.
Genetic evidence also reaffirms the correctness of Darwin's theory of evolution, that we have indeed survived through natural evolution.
Of course, there are still more gaps to be filled in DNA research regarding human origins.
We look forward to further technological development to solve all the puzzles! After all, it's human nature to explore the unknown.
epilogue
Behind the never-ending interest in the exploration of our own origins is our curiosity and desire to exist ourselves, and at the same time, a rational and peaceful scientific attitude is also crucial.