Can animals breed across species?
- Thread starter Brent
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so i suppose you could walk to a zoo with all the cat family and ask for a liger and lion?
erm Zebra + donkey = Zeedonk
Doesn't the term 'breeding naturally' also come into the definition of species? A tiger and lion do not mate in the wild, only occasionally in captivity.
And as previously said 'ligers' and 'tigrons' are almost always sterile, as as mules.
Some species of dogs can interbreed successfully. For example a red wolf and gray wolf, and also a red wolf and coyote but this might be more of a result of us wrongly classifying the dog family rather than being two species interbreeding.
And as previously said 'ligers' and 'tigrons' are almost always sterile, as as mules.
Some species of dogs can interbreed successfully. For example a red wolf and gray wolf, and also a red wolf and coyote but this might be more of a result of us wrongly classifying the dog family rather than being two species interbreeding.
Species can breed across their genus and I think occasionally outside it but as said, usually sterile although if the two species are related closely enough it could produce fertile offspring.
It's common enough that species cross breed even if their offspring can't reproduce but when they are capable, it's an avenue of evolution and they sometimes end up becoming their own true species.
Normally you only see it in the "lower lifeforms" of the animal kingdom like in fish but it can happen in mammals or birds too.
It's common enough that species cross breed even if their offspring can't reproduce but when they are capable, it's an avenue of evolution and they sometimes end up becoming their own true species.
Normally you only see it in the "lower lifeforms" of the animal kingdom like in fish but it can happen in mammals or birds too.
I believe the platypus is the result of interbreeding between ducks and otters.
horse + donkey= mule
does that mean that a human & a gorilla could?
Back in the 1920's a Russian scientist, Ilya Ivanov, attempted to create human-ape hybrids in order to prove evolutionary descent. This was not done for scientific purposes, but rather as a Communist attempt to discredit religion.
The reason it won't work is primarily chromosomal number differences. IE; you can't take something with 42 pairs of chromosomes and breed it with something have 36. It would take some very advanced genetic tinkering to accomplish it and I doubt we're going to be anywhere near that level any time soon.
horse + donkey= mule
does that mean that a human & a gorilla could?
Back in the 1920's a Russian scientist, Ilya Ivanov, attempted to create human-ape hybrids in order to prove evolutionary descent. This was not done for scientific purposes, but rather as a Communist attempt to discredit religion.
what was with those Russian scientist back in the day?
Actually, you can, but it doesn't work well. Chromosome number really matters during cell division. Mitosis works fine with different numbers of chromosomes because homologous chromosomes don't line up in pairs. However, meiosis I does not work because the chromosome pairs cannot properly line up. That is why mules or ligers are usually sterile. These interspecies pairings can produce viable offspring because the developmental processes of the two closely-related species are so similar that the embryos can still develop properly. Differences in chromosome number, however, prevent the hybrid from producing functional gametes so they are sterile.
The pairing of a cat and dog, for example, would be very unlikely to work because the developmental processes of the two species are too dissimilar.
Good Lord. That "scientist" is as cruel as Dr. Mengele or the fictional Crell Moset!
horse + donkey= mule
does that mean that a human & a gorilla could?
The real question is, has anyone ever attempted to have sex with an ape?
Scientists will say "oh it's not possible for Humans and Apes to produce offspring" but if it were possible do you think they would say so? hmmm?
I think not.
There is a way for us to bypass scientists and find out. Any volunteers?
I am sure that there is some sick fucko out there that has tried this. I mean you heard about the Russian guy fucking a skunk (was it a skunk?) or Raccoon maybe and the thing bit his wee wee off. This was just a few months ago now.
Oh the human condition......
Looking at my brother in law, you'd think they had.
I've always remembered this video way back in high school about bees and pollen etc with a line about a bee and a flower cross breeding but it was too horrific to film.
It only made me really curious to see it...
I'm not sure that test was all that rigorous. What it appears they did was a quick count up of the chromosomes. Which proves nothing for me. Animals can be born with missing or extra chromosomes. So it's still possible that Oliver represented cross-species breeding + chromosome anomaly. In fact, it might have been that combination that made Oliver possible. There seemed to have been surprisingly little interest in doing a proper genetic analysis.
I think that he was in fact just a mutant, of the kind that, given the right circumstances, might lead to speciation. It's not hard to imagine a creature like that breeding in the wild and having similar offspring, perhaps as our ancestors did in Africa, and taking advantage of the more upright posture over many subsequent generations. Assuming he's fertile of course.
I mean, if anti-evolutionists want proof of a pretty drastic, functional mutation in a higher mammal that did not lead to impairment or death, there you go. They should do more genetic testing on him though, just to see what specific differences there might be.
I think it is worth remembering that our definition of 'species' is a construct, a handy method of classification. Nature is much more continuous than our tendency to discretely box and label would prefer. It is very likely that there are species, classified separately, who can nonetheless successfully breed to produce fertile offspring, flying in the face of the definition. Nature loves to break the 'rules'.
