But the integration of non-human hardware into the body is actually among humanity's most primordial obsessions, and it has dominated our imaginations for tens of thousands of years.

For starters, take the "Lion Man of the Hohlenstein Stadel," thought to be the oldest zoomorphic sculpture ever found. It was carved about 40,000 years ago in Germany, and depicts a human body casually topped off with lion's head.

Concept pieces like this seem to indicate that our early ancestors were as restless about the limitations of the human body as we are today, and enjoyed beta-testing wildly imaginative hybrid species in their artwork and stories. 

To that point, the Lion Man is far from the only zoomorphic figure that pops up in prehistoric artwork. From bison-men to the bizarre, multi-animal mashup known as the Sorcerer, pushing the limits of the human body—if only conceptually—has been a preoccupation of our species for a very long time.