A chimp or a mutation? A half-human 'missing-link' or simply genetically diseased? After tracking Oliver for over a decade, cryptozoological detective Dr. Karl Shuker is able, at last, to reveal his identity.

I dont know, depends on what she looked like. 
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FINALLY someone who doesnt think monkeys are adorable

Chimps aren't monkeys. They're primates like us.

Technically, it would be possible for a human and a chimp to cross-breed, however, the offspring would almost certainly be sterile, and would have little chance of being concieved to begin with.

Yeah, I heard that the chimp made sexual advances on his human owner, nad he took more interest in humans than chimps. That's creepy

...so are monkeys..

Chimps aren't monkeys. They're primates like us.


Technically, it would be possible for a human and a chimp to cross-breed, however, the offspring would almost certainly be sterile, and would have little chance of being concieved to begin with.
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I hate apes and monkeys.....sorry but i dont really care weather its human or not..... was interesting though...... just dont like primates.....PRIMATES.....

Swett asked Chicago University geneticist Dr David Ledbetter to examine Oliver's chromosomes, which he did in autumn 1996. His studies revealed that Oliver had 48, not 47, chromosomes, thus disproving the earlier claim and confirming that he had a normal chromosome count for a chimpanzee. Swett, however, desired further analyses to pin-point Oliver's precise status. Accordingly, he persuaded DNA analysis expert Dr John fly from Texas's Trinity University and cytogeneticist Dr Charleen Moore from Texas University's Health Science Center to conduct the most extensive genetic studies ever undertaken with Oliver. Their results were published in 1998 by the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and disclosed the following.

Standard chromosomal studies fully supported Ledbetter's findings that Oliver had the diploid chromesome count expected for chimpanzees (i.e. 48 or 24 pairs). They also revealed that his chromosomes possessed banding patterns typical for the common chimpanzee but different from those of humans and bonobos, thereby excluding any possibility of Oliver being a hybrid.

Moreover, when they sequenced a specific portion (312 bp region) of the D-loop region of Oliver's mitochondrial DNA they discovered that its sequence corresponded very closely indeed with that of the Central African subspecies of common chimpanzee; the closest correspondence of all was with a chimp specimen from Gabon in Central-West Africa. This all strongly suggests that Oliver also originated from this region and is simply a common chimp - an identity entirely consistent, therefore, with my own little-publicised opinion from 1993.

After decades of mystery, Oliver's identity had finally been uncovered, exposed by his genes. But what of his external idiosyncrasies? Fly and Moore's paper contained some eye-opening infermation dating back to the 1970s, but which was presumably not sensational enough to attract the interest of the media and thus had not previously received publicity.

For instance, although media accounts had noted that Oliver was toothless (his teeth had been pulled), they had not revealed that primatologist Dr Clifford Jolly had examined Oliver as long ago as 1976. Jolly found that Oliver did not share the strikingly prognathous (projecting) jaw line of other chimps due to resorption of the alveolar bone, a shortened maxilla and premaxilla (upper jaw bones), and underdeveloped temporal musculature. Jolly had concluded that these features were in turn caused by Oliver's toothless condition. He also concluded that Oliver's habitual bipedal gait was due to conditioning.

As for Oliver's cranial morphology, ear shape, freckles and baldness, these were nothing more than individual variations, well within the range of variability exhibited by the common chimpanzee - a species that presents, in the words of primatologist Professor W.C. Osman Hill: "a bewildering variety of individual variations".

Although no longer special in taxonomic terms, Oliver is destined forever to remain a classic example of how media hype and sensationalist publicity can create with Frankensteinian fervour a veritable monster from the most mundane of animals.

You do realize you are dissing yourselves? You are a primate!

some people are too nit-picky...

There was only a thread on this like... 2 days ago.

And humans are apes.
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Also,humans are primates,but this creature could be inbetween humans and apes