A prominent evolutionary scientist, Dr. Eugene M. McCarthy, is advancing a new theory about the origins of man. He says that while it is true that a chimpanzee is our closest genetic relative, human beings have characteristics that are unlike any other primate. For example, we lack the hairy hide of chimps and instead have just plain skin; under that skin, we have a layer of subcutaneous fat, whereas you never see an obese chimp; we have a protuding nose, whereas an ape’s nose is flat; and there are scores of other differences. Dr. McCarthy postulates that human beings may be a hybrid of two different kinds of animal. The animal that has those other characteristics–skin, fat, protuding nose, etc.– is the pig.
Dr. McCarthy is a geneticist who has studied hybrids (donkey + horse = mule; sheep + goat = “geep”; various birds and plants). He says that, contrary to the common assumption, not all hybrids are sterile (as mules are).
Working out what would have had to happen, he thinks that a male pig may have mated with a female chimpanzee. Normally, two different species cannot have babies, unless they are closely related (like donkeys and horses; sheep and goats). But somehow, this union was blessed with offspring, a humanoid baby. (Would we call it a “chig” or a “pimp”?) And somehow, that baby, unlike most hybrids, could reproduce, eventually evolving into us. [But wait–if the baby could reproduce when it grew up, there would have to be two of them, a male and a female. Pigs have litters but chimps usually just have one baby at a time. So all of this must have happened twice. The pig and the chimp must have really loved each other, for the equivalent of being married.]
Since science is not an ideology or a philosophy of what can exist but a methodology, you would think this would be a hypothesis that can be tested experimentally. Let’s see if a pig and a chimp could engender fertile offspring. We don’t have to do it in any way that would raise objections with PETA, it could be done with in vitro fertilization. But no genetic engineering and no use of any technology that was not available millions of years ago.
Go here for Dr. McCarthy’s explanation of his hypothesis: Human origins: Are we hybrids?.
HT: James Kushiner
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