An American geneticist says he has compelling evidence that the human race began as a love affair between a female chimpanzee and a male pig. Dr. Eugene McCarthy, who happens to be one of the leading experts in the world on hybridization in animals, is responsible for the extraordinary claim made in 2013. The Daily Mail reports: He points out that while humans have many features in common with chimps, we also have a large number of distinguishing characteristics not found in any other primates. Dr McCarthy says these divergent characteristics are most likely the result of a hybrid origin at some point far back in human evolutionary history. What’s more, he suggests, there is one animal that has all of the traits which distinguish humans from our primate cousins in the animal kingdom. ‘What is this other animal that has all these traits?’ he asks rhetorically. ‘The answer is Sus scrofa, the ordinary pig.’ Dr McCarthy elaborates his astonishing hypothesis in an article on Macroevolution.net, a website he curates. He is at pains to point out that that it is merely a hypothesis, but he presents compelling evidence to support it. Scientists currently suppose that chimpanzees are humans’ closest living [...]