The True Story of the Soviet Scientist Who Tried to Breed a ‘Human-Ape’ Hybrid!

A Scientist Tried to Breed a ‘Human-Ape’ HybridPicture by Tambako the Jaguar - Getty Images

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• Russian zoologist Ilia Ivanov was determined to find a way to hybridize humans and chimps, and successful hybridization of other animals convinced him it was possible.

• After Ivanov was able to implant a human ovary in a female chimp, he unsuccessfully tried to inseminate her with human sperm, so he went in the opposite direction.

• Ivanov imported chimps to Russia, inseminating unpaid Soviet women with their sperm, though none conceived because human and chimp chromosomes are incompatible.

Towards the end of Planet of the Apes, a shirtless Charlton Heston kisses chimpanzee doctor Zira (an uncharacteristically hairy Kim Hunter) as waves crash against the shore in the background. She cringes and protests that he is so “ugly.” Just as in this fictional scene, chimps have no desire to mate with humans in the real world, either. But that didn’t stop one early 20th-century scientist from going even further than Charlton Heston did.

Zoologist Ilia Ivanov was the Soviet researcher who proverbially flew too close to the sun when it came to the fantasy of a human-ape hybrid. Around the turn of the century, he conducted experiments that involved artificially inseminating horses to create superior offspring for Imperial Russia, and this work earned him recognition from the Bolsheviks. Ivanov wasn’t satisfied with merely enhancing a species, though. Hybridization became his obsession, and he was soon crossing zebras with donkeys, cows with bison, and several different species of rodents with each other. In 1910, he brashly declared he could see a human-ape hybrid in the future.

DECEMBER MEMORIES!

You Don't Need Subscribers to Make Money on YouTube!

The Most Expensive Home Ever Listed Just Hit the Market for $400 Million!

 Inside A $400 Million Los Angeles MegamansionSimon Berlyn

The world’s most expensive residential property just hit the market for a jaw-dropping $400 million. Listed by Jack Harris and Michael Fahimian of the Beverly Hills Estates, the palatial Los Angeles home eclipses the $300 million asking price of Aspen’s Little Lake Lodge, which hit the market last August and has yet to find a buyer.

At more than 70,000 square feet, the Southern California mega-mansion took over ten years and $350 million to complete, with construction wrapping up in 2018. “This estate was built with a vision that goes far beyond traditional luxury,” Fahimian tells ELLE Decor. “Time and budget were not a factor when constructing this.”

An overhead view of the property, designed by Peter Marino.Simon Berlyn

Designed by ELLE Decor A-List Titan Peter Marino and built by Peter McCoy, the eight-acre estate features 39 bedrooms and multiple kitchens across a Mediterranean-style main residence and guest house. On the grounds, you’ll also find three swimming pools, a pool house, a tennis court, a tennis pavilion, and a hammam. Fahimian told the WSJ he estimated the guest house alone—which includes six bedrooms, staff quarters, a chef’s kitchen, a gym, and an outdoor pool—was worth $75 million.