Interbreeding of different species

[Traveller]

This is an old article (from 2006), so perhaps it's already somewhere in the archives, but I found this interesting, with all the Human/Vulcan, Human/Romulan, Human/Klingon, etc. hybrids we have in the ST universe:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051702158.html

 

[Christopher]

It's one thing for two extremely closely related species from the same taxonomic tribe (the category between family and genus) on the same planet to interbreed. It's a whole other matter when they're supposedly from completely alien biospheres. In principle, we should be more closely related to a pine tree than to a Klingon or Vulcan.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I guess Proto-chimps and proto-humans mating successfully could well have happened as they shared a common ancestor. However, as the late Carl Sagan pointed out, a human would stand a better chance of succeeding in mating with a petunia than with an extraterrestrial. However, I'm not proposing that people get a thing going on with the contents of their greenhouses. 'Twould not be bestiality, vegitality perhaps.

 

[Traveller]

That's why they had The Chase in TNG - in the Star Trek universe, we're supposely different subspecies of the whatever-they-were-called. Apparently the ST races are no farther apart than those proto-apes and proto-humans.

(I know, I know... no need to point out the faulty logic of that episode ...)

Really, if Worf's girlfriend (know her name, but can't spell it)could have Alexander, the ape/man interbreeding would be a viable analogy. True hybrids are sterile.

 

[sojourner]

^mostly sterile.

 

[PlixTixiplik]

Hybrid inviability is not quite as strong as many people assume, and there are actually quite a few examples of mammal interbreeding producting viable offspring (sometimes just the female is fertile). It seems to be especially common in deer/antelopes, bovids, and camelids. Purebred Scottish red deer are at risk of extinction because of hybridization with the Asian Sika deer. All of the South American camelids (llamas, alpacas, guanacos, vicunas) can interbreed despite being in two different genera, and llamas and dromedary camels can even produce offspring! The latter pairing requires artificial insemination because the size difference physically precludes mating (called "mechanical isolation"). Also, only the male camel/female llama pair seems to work, not the reverse. Hybridization can be really weird!

From this I also learned that there is a book called "Recent Advances in Yak Reproduction."