Hyderabad: An Instagram page 'Words of Science' recently posted a picture of a human-like baby with sharp nails and hair growing all over the body. It claimed that this is the world's first successful human-animal hybrid. The page has over 38,000 followers. (click here to view)
FACT CHECK:
The claim is false.
The same image was found on the website 'ArtStation'. It states that the image shows a fictional character 'Wolf Pup' that was designed by US character artist Jared Krishevsky. The images on the website carry the watermark of 'Jupiter Ascending'.
The same image was also uploaded on Jared Krishevsky's Instagram page in May 2015 with the caption that states the character 'Wolf Pup' was designed for the movie `Jupiter Ascending'. "This scene got cut from the film, but it was supposed to be the origin of Channing Tatum's wolf guy", it reads.
The hashtags used in the caption also suggest that this image is a concept and digital art.
According to 'IMDB', Jared Krishevsky was associated with the film 'Jupiter Ascending' as a concept artist. 'Jupiter Ascending' was released in 2015. Jared Krishevsky is a character/creature concept artist who has a decade of experience in designing for film, television, and commercials.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1617661/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cl_sm
Evidently, it is clear that the image posted on the Instagram page does not show a real human-animal hybrid. However, there is research being done in this field. Recently, scientists successfully grew monkey embryos that contained human cells for the first time. But this image is not linked to any of the experiments conducted by scientists.
Thus, the claim is false.