A new study by Eugene McCarthy from the University of Georgia claims that humans did not evolve from chimps alone, but in fact from  a combination of chimps and pigs. McCarthy said that at some point in human evolutionary history, a pig mated with a chimpanzee that might have led to Homo sapiens.

The geneticist said that while humans share several characteristics with chimps, we also possess certain traits common to pigs as well. Some of the characteristics not found in primates, but present in both humans and pigs include hairless skin, large eyelashes, protruding noses, a thick layer of subcutaneous fat and light colored eyes.

"What is this other animal that has all these traits?' McCarthy asks. "The answer is Sus scrofa, the ordinary pig."

McCarthy also said that the structure of the skin and organs are also similar in both humans and pigs. Pig skin tissues and heart valves are used in medicine because of their resemblance and compatibility with the human body.

However, not many are convinced with McCarthy's extraordinary theory of mating between the two different animals. P.Z. Myers, a science blogger, is not sure about such a union.

"Hybridizing a pig and a chimp is like taking half the dancers from a performance of Swan Lake and the other half from a performance of Giselle and throwing them together on stage to assemble something. It's going to be a catastrophe," Myers said, NY Daily News reports.

Emphasizing that the theory is merely a hypothesis, McCarthy concludes saying, "I must admit that I initially felt a certain amount of repugnance at the idea of being a hybrid. The image of a pig mating with an ape is not a pretty one, nor is that of a horde of monstrous half-humans breeding in a hybrid swarm. But the way we came to be is not so important as the fact that we now exist,"Daily Star reports.

The thesis has been posted on Macroevolution.net.