For years, there were rumors of a secret laboratory operation to develop "humanzee" man-ape super troops. The strange initiatives attempt to create hybrid creatures with undeveloped brains but great power, according to reports.
The discovery of a mystery "hybrid monkey" with DNA from two distinct species startled the scientific community last week, per Daily Star.
The creature, which looks to be a hybrid of two species, was spotted near the Kinabatangan River in Malaysian Borneo.
Reports also mention that the hybrid beast is vying for forest habitat. A more unique breeding endeavor was undertaken a decade ago.
The latest study published in the International Journal of Primatology said experts found the rare monkey as a newborn in 2017.
According to the study, the monkey appears to be a mix between a proboscis monkey and a silvery langur. Despite sharing the same forest, these two species have vastly distinct features and are only distantly related.
The study further mentioned this is the first time a hybrid of the two species has been discovered. It's also just the second time wild monkeys have observed intergeneric hybridization.
Although hybridization between closely related species is common, offspring of two distantly related species are "rarely encountered in the wild."
Hybrid Monkey To Lab-Made 'Humanzee' Explained
Bro Bible said the fact that proboscis monkeys and silvery langurs belong to different genera is possibly the most amazing aspect of this finding.
"Seeing this putative hybrid is per se not of concern to the balance of the ecosystem or the two species. However, it is an alarming symptom of an ecosystem that already seems out of balance," Nadine Ruppert, co-author of the report and senior lecturer at the University of Science in Malaysia, told Newsweek.
In comparison, proboscis monkeys are much bigger, reaching heights of 76 cm and weighing up to 24 kilos. Silvery langurs reach a maximum height of 56 centimeters and a weight of 6.6 kilos as adults.
News of the hybrid monkey spotted in Borneo brought back the idea of "humanzee" super soldiers. There were reports claiming that there were attempts to crossbreed apes and humans to create a "humanzee." The most recent of which allegedly occurred in 2019 at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the United States.
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Researchers claim to have created the first human-monkey hybrids in that experiment. According to reports, the trials were carried out in China "to avoid legal complications."
Scientists have also reportedly identified a means to merge monkey and human embryos, as well as spliced human DNA, to double the size of monkeys' brains.
History Of The Alleged 'Humanzee' Project
Humanzee is a hypothetical hybrid of a human and chimpanzee. Dictator Joseph Stalin allegedly ordered a Soviet scientist to create the hybrid as a "super soldier," probably similar to what you see in Planet of the Apes.
The ape-man or humanzee hybrid should be able to work under extreme conditions when it is too dangerous for ordinary humans to carry operations. There were allegedly declassified documents in the 1990s showing Kremlin chiefs aiming to have an unbeatable humanzee army with super strength and who are resilient and resistant to hunger.
Biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov led the 1920s humanzee project. They attempted to crossbreed humans and apes using artificial insemination.
Interesting Engineering said an American psychologist named Gordon Gallup claimed that a human-chimp hybrid was successfully developed at the Orange Park Laboratory in Florida in the 1920s.
A former university professor informed him of the project, according to Gallup. However, the researchers involved had second thoughts about the moral and ethical implications and immediately terminated the child.
In 1970, the idea of a humanzee was reawakened after Oliver, a performing chimpanzee was discovered. He was popularized as a possible "mutant" or a human-monkey hybrid.
There were also claims that China was working on a human-chimpanzee crossbreeding in 1967, and it was reportedly continued in the 1980s.
Similar efforts are reportedly still ongoing.
In 2019, a group of scientists led by Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte from US Stalk Institute for Biological Studies reportedly created a humanzee or human-monkey hybrid, but it only survived for 19 days.
Scientists still have the chance and the task of creating a live humanzee. While the concept of a live "humanzee" is still science fiction, if and when this occurs, it may aid scientists in better understanding how humans work to find medical therapies, but it will raise a slew of ethical issues that will require significant attention.
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