Scientific background

Abstract

An individual whose body contains different cell populations derived from different zygotes is defined as chimera. These different cell populations can be derived from one species resulting in intra-species chimerism (aa) or from two different species resulting in inter-species chimerism (c). Hybrids contain equal cells but with mixed genomes of two different taxa. Thus, inter-species hybrids (c) are the classical hybrids and intra-species hybrids (bb) mean mixtures of subspecies or strains. Mixed creatures have fascinated people for thousands of years in various societies world-wide. In the mythology of Ancient Middle East and Greece, creatures such as Pegasus (horse/eagle), mermaid (woman/fish), satyr (man/goat), harpy (woman/bird), centaur (man/horse), minotaur (man/bull), griffin (eagle/lion), and basilisk (cock/snake) are occurring. In Ancient Egypt (e.g., the sphinx, a mixture of man and lion) and in the Hindu religion, the majority of deities were hybrids between man and animals and also in East Asian cultures such creatures are known, such as the Qilin (a mixture of several species including dragon, dear, and lion). In the middle ages in Europe, all kinds of mixed creatures were used for the ornamentation of churches in particular serving as gargoyles to scare away bad ghosts. And even nowadays such hybrids have come to a renaissance in fantasy stories such as the Harry Potter series.