I found a good deal of interest amongst primatologists in our poster
on Oliver at the ASP meetings in San Diego last summer, and I thought a
recent publication on Oliver might be of interest to Primate-Talkers.
Oliver has been in and out of the media spotlight (including Time
magazine and several major newspapers) since the early 1970s, as
different owners promoted his bipedal locomotion and shaved head as
evidence that he was a cryptic, bipedal African man ape. (Some of these
rumors are truly astonishing, for example, that he prepared his own
martinis and smoked cigars.) Unsubstantiated rumors that
cytogeneticists determined Oliver's karyotype to be 2N=47, midway
between a human and a chimpanzee, led to further popular suggestions
that he was a "sport" or a human-chimp hybrid. Two years ago, Science
published a news report that Oliver the "'mutant' chimp" was getting a
"gene check" (1). Since then, the cytogenetic analysis alluded to in
that report has been completed, along with mtDNA sequencing and homology
comparisons to African chimpanzees of known geographical origins, and
just published in the AJPA (2). Our results indicate that Oliver is a
member of the Pan troglodytes troglodytes subspecies from Central
Africa, has 48 normal chimpanzee chromosomes, and was likely trapped in
Gabon. Full details behind our conclusions can be found in our report
(2).
I might add that, from what I have seen so far, those who really want to believe in highly intelligent, bipedal African man-apes ("Apamandi" and whatnot) who continue to elude field primatologists, the bushmeat market &etc, will not be dissuaded by any amount of evidence. The persistence of these deeply-rooted beliefs, as psychological facts, are an interesting phenomenon in their own right.
As luck would have it, I have been told that the Lifetime television station is re-broadcasting an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries" tonight (Friday 27 March, 7:00 CST), which contains a segment on Oliver, including a clip of his infamous bipedal gait.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Science, 1996. "Mutant" Chimp Gets Gene Check. Science 274: 727.
2. Ely, J.J., Leland, M., Martino, M., Swett, W., and Moore, C.M.,
1998. Technical report: chromosomal and mtDNA analysis of Oliver.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology 105(3): 395-403.
John J. Ely, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
Trinity University
E-mail: jely@trinity.edu
URL: http://www.primate.wisc.edu/pin/oliver.html
Page last modified:
February 15, 2002
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