Is it possible to produce fertile offspring between humans and other species?

In the Animal World
BB.LV
Publiation data: 07.05.2026 17:45
Is it possible to produce fertile offspring between humans and other species?

Most likely, no.

 

The question of the possibility of creating hybrids between humans and great apes has been discussed in the scientific community from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. However, real experiments in this area were conducted only once. In 1926–1927, the famous Soviet artificial insemination specialist, Professor Ilya Ivanov, organized an expedition to French Guinea, where at the Pasteur Institute's research station, he attempted to fertilize chimpanzees with human sperm. However, he was unable to achieve even conception.

The scientist intended to continue his experiments by fertilizing female volunteer chimpanzees in the USSR at the Sukhumi monkey nursery, which he had initiated. However, in 1930, he was arrested and exiled to Alma-Ata, where he died suddenly in 1932.

Today, such experiments would be deemed unethical, and moreover, they would likely be doomed to failure. The evolutionary lines of humans and their closest relatives (chimpanzees and bonobos) diverged too long ago, approximately 6–7 million years ago, and significant differences have accumulated in their genomes. In particular, humans have 46 chromosomes, while chimpanzees and bonobos have 48 each. This makes the birth of a viable, let alone fertile hybrid, extremely unlikely.

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