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Early life Oliver was acquired as a baby in the early 1970s by trainers Frank and Janet Berger. Some physical and behavioral evidence led the Bergers to believe Oliver was a creature other than a chimpanzee, perhaps a human-chimp hybrid: Oliver possesses a flatter face than his fellow chimpanzees (as his teeth were removed), Oliver walks bipedally, and never walks on his knuckles like his chimpanzee peers, and Oliver may have preferred human females over chimpanzee females, although this seems to be an urban legend and a legacy from when he was on The Ed Sullivan Show in the early 1970s (Sullivan said "Oliver was sold when he began to express sexual interest in his female owner and other women." *). Still, Oliver was not the clownish performer his chimp peers were, and other chimps avoided him. Some people claim he did not possess a typical odor common to chimpanzees. Vincent Pace, a concert pianist and friend of the Bergers, tried to purchase Oliver but was outbid. His Japanese tour Oliver's next owner was New York appellate lawyer Michael Miller, who promoted Oliver as a "missing link". Oliver appeared on Japanese TV with fraudulent promotions picturing him as a miniature and hairy human being. Though he was sent to Japan in a normal chimpanzee cage as cargo, Oliver was depicted as flying in the passenger cabin. Oliver's trip coincided with a concert promotion of the rock 'n roll group The Monkees and he was presented on Japanese television shows with Micky Dolenz providing inaccurate scientific observations. Miller claimed he was promised genuine scientific examination of Oliver including genetic testing by the Japanese promoters. Some Japanese results held that Oliver had 47 chromosomes. Some anthropologists observing Oliver's head, nose, ears, and preference for bipedal walking asserted the possibility that the chimp was a hybrid. Oliver is sold
A normal "common chimp" says DNA Swett asked University of Chicago geneticist Dr. David Ledbetter to examine Oliver's chromosomes. These studies were performed in 1996 and revealed that Oliver had forty-eight, not forty-seven, chromosomes, thus disproving the earlier claim and confirming that he had a normal chromosome count for a chimpanzee. Dr. John from Texas's Trinity University and cytogeneticist Dr. Charleen Moore from The University of Texas's Health Science Center conducted more extensive studies with Oliver, results of which were published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in 1998. Standard chromosomal studies fully supported Ledbetter's findings that Oliver had the diploid chromosome count expected for chimpanzees. His chromosomes possessed banding patterns typical for the common chimpanzee yet different from those of humans and bonobos, thereby excluding any possibility of Oliver being a hybrid. Oliver's mitochondrial DNA sequence corresponded very closely with that of the Central African subspecies of common chimpanzee; the closest correspondence of all was with a chimp specimen from Gabon in Central-West Africa. The study showed that Oliver's cranial morphology, ear shape, freckles and baldness were individual variations within the range of variability exhibited by the common chimpanzee. Oliver may be an example of a rare bipedal sub-species of the common chimpanzee lineage. The radical differences in his behavior remain notable for their suggestion of his being to some extent culturally and physically more humanlike than most known chimpanzees. The bipedalism trait remains obscure in human DNA studies and may be real though undetected in Ledbetter's findings. Another possibility is that his bipedalism and behavior were due to domestication and animal training. Oliver Today Oliver remains in the care of Primarily Primates director, Wally Swett. He is still a source of media curiosity and some writers propose that even though he has been determined to be genetic chimpanzee, further study of Oliver's unique traits might yield useful information. Even so, his protector Swett appears determined to help Oliver live the rest of his life outside the media glare or as sideshow curiosity. See also Bibliography | ||||||||||||
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