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Humans and chimpanzees have different number of [[chromosome]]s, but this does not necessarily mean a humanzee would be [[infertile]].{{fact}} Two chromosomes in the ape genome have fused in the human genome, but such mismatches are relatively common in existing species, a phenomenon known as [[chromosomal polymorphism]].
Many believe that if a chuman/humanzee existed and could bear its own young, then humans and chimpanzees would be the same [[species]] [[A priori and a posteriori (philosophy)|a priori]]. This is based on a commonly used [[Species#Definitions of species|definition of species]] that considers specifically the possibility of genetic transfer between populations. Other definitions of species do not make this conclusion; for example, a female [[liger]] – the [[hybrid]] offspring of a [[lion]] and a [[tiger]] – may be fertile, but lions and tigers are considered separate species.
In the 1920s the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[biology|biologist]] [[Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov (biologist)|Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov]] carried out a series of experiments to create a human/ape hybrid. At first working with human sperm and chimpanzee females, none of his attempts created a pregnancy. In 1929 he organized a set of experiments involving ape sperm and human volunteers, but was delayed by the death of his last [[orangutan]]. The next year he fell under political criticism from the Soviet government and was sentenced to exile in the [[Kazakh SSR]] during the [[Great Purge]]. He died two years later.
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