A new study conducted by well-known geneticist, Dr Eugene McCarthy, has controversially suggested that traits distinguishing chimpanzees from humans consistently connect with pigs and that Homo sapiens could be a hybrid of the two.

It is not new that the DNA of pigs is very similar to humans – pigs are often used in surgical treatments of human beings, pig heart valves are used to replace those of human patients, pig skin is used for treatment of burns, and efforts are currently underway to use pig organs to transplant into humans.

In 2012, research published in Nature magazine showed that pig’s genome is in the same way adaptable and susceptible to domestication as humans. Pigs suffer from the same genetic and protein malfunctions that account for many human diseases sharing 112 DNA mutations including Alzheimer, Parkinson and obesity. However, this research made no claim about links between pigs and humans.

Here is where Eugene McCarthy’s hybrid theory comes. McCarthy is not just another theorist, he has spent most of his life studying hybrids and particular avian and mammalian hybrids, making him an expert on the topic. He suggests that pigs and chimpanzees are compatible to mate and that hybrids naturally occur in nature. He has found that traits distinguishing chimpanzees from humans consistently link pigs with humans alone.

McCarthy is not fanatical about his theory , he is not over-supporting it, but has put forward a point-of-view that cannot yet be dismissed because there is no evidence to reject it. When Darwin first said that we come from apes it was outrageous, then it became publicly accepted and now it is considered a fact. When new theories come out they have to fight with the status quo and then establish themselves. It shouldn’t be like this.

This is not to say the study has any truth to it at all, but I commend McCarthy for his challenge of the status quo and for daring to put forward a theory that is different from the rest.

By John Black