Oliver was debunked genetically as just a chimp, not a hybrid, as he has 48 chromosomes. But has any reasonable explanation ever been given for his intelligence.
Zana does not seem to have been debunked. But what I don’t understand is, in all the article and research about her - why is no one asking where her tribesmen, or relatives, or siblings, or ancestors were? Or their bodies, or their bones?
Anyway I am looking for more information on both these cases, preferably stuff that scientifically explains and debunks claims that Zana is a Neanderthal, or Oliver is some sort of new species, etc.
Er, I don’t see anything about Oliver’s “intelligence” in the article. He fed the dog, he used the toilet, he watched TV, he liked beer, he made sexual advances towards females–it takes intelligence to do all this? Hmmm…
Zana has never been debunked for the same reason the Abominable Snowman has never been debunked–there’s nothing to debunk. They’re both just stories. “Fiction” doesn’t need to be debunked.
I believe Oliver was genetically proven a chimp albeit quite an anomoly as far as appearance goes. The theory was raised that he may have been a rare sub-species of the common chimp, raised by humans to behave like humans. If he was forced to habitually walk upright from a very young age, he could have mastered and adapted to this mode of locomotion. I think the sub-species angle is actually more interesting than the hybrid-hype. A new subspecies of chimp may have been discovered in the Congo as recently as last year. Giant Chimps who behave like gorillas, here. Most likely, Oliver was just a strange looking common chimpanzee, individual facial variation in chimps is is very common.
One problem re debunking or confirming the story of Zana is that the location of Zana’s grave is unknown; another is that there were no written accounts of Zana until well after she had died, and it is possible that such accounts, especially those dealing with her appearance, were massively exaggerated. Here’s another article about Zana, giving more details about her owners, the hunt for her grave, and two photographs of the skull of her son Knwit.
