01-24-2006, 12:28 PM | #81 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: [Banestorm] The war of Megalos against Caithness
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In any event, it would be interesting to determine how this "fertility" aspect works. Tigons, if they can reproduce together and produce more Tigons would seem to show that it is possible to have half-breeds of two seemingly distinct "species". Problem with that however is whether or not they are truly different species. I seem to recall (and take this with a HUGE grain of salt as I am relying on my memory here!) that they did a genetic mapping of two different species of dogs and found that there was no genetic difference by looking at the genes alone. Also, the question rears its ugly head with wolf-dog combinations. I guess what it boils down to is whether or not the half-breeds can mate with each other and produce "pure" hybrids. If so, does this mean that the two parent species are more related than we thought, or does it mean they are truly capable of reproduction cross species. |
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01-24-2006, 12:33 PM | #82 | |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: [Banestorm] The war of Megalos against Caithness
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01-24-2006, 12:34 PM | #83 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: [Banestorm] The war of Megalos against Caithness
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01-24-2006, 01:44 PM | #84 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Banestorm] The war of Megalos against Caithness
The traditional definition is that crossbreeds don't breed true, not that they're sterile. If they breed true, it implies that the parents are in fact substantially variant versions of the same species, rather than being different species at all.
Note that, with real (vs fantasy) biology, for males, you can associate a parent species with the 'X' and 'Y' chromosomes, which means gender will determine whether the child is a cross or a purebreed. |
01-24-2006, 08:24 PM | #85 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: [Banestorm] The war of Megalos against Caithness
That presumeably requires that all the differentiation is carried on the X (or possibly Y) chromosomes. I wonder if that's really so, or whether just the visible/easily detected differences are.
To add the excitement, some genes express differently depending on whether they were inherited from the male or the female parent, which could in theory result in offspring being 'purebred' in phenotype, even though they were crossbreds, genetically. I've found, over the years, that just about any 'fantastic' interbreeding/crossbreeding effect can be justified genetically if you dig deep enough. Whether outlandish interactions are at all likely is a whole other matter, of course.
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
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