or vice versa?
Apparently, when asked why cats and humas can’t interbreed, one Cecil Adams replied:
“For the same reason you can’t park a Cadillac in a closet.”
With a mismatched number of chromosomes between the two parents, or very different DNA/protein structures, or anatomical diiferences, it’s difficult-gusting-to-impossible.
Plus, one of the definitions of ‘species’ is ‘a group of individuals who can interbreed with each other and produce fertile offspring’. I don’t think that quite works for you and the squirrel that lives in your chevy’s suspension.
And, of course, why would you want to?
On the other hand, I saw a TV program (Old Reliable, I know) that talked about an ape with one less chromosome than a man, and one more than a chimp. The suggestion was that it was the result of human-chimp interbreeding.
Not my kind of one-night stand.
From my dictionary:
Species
Biol. The major subdivision of a genus or subgenus, regarded as the basic category of biological classification, composed of related individuals that resemble one another, are able to breed among themselves, but are not able to breed with members of another species.
So I’d say no, by definition. I’ll defer to the biologists on this board for better/fuller explanations.
There are a lot of things keeping humans from breeding with other animals.
The first is the fact that “normal” people don’t find other animals attractive sexually. This feeling is mutual so it doesn’t usually come up.
The second is that there may be physical miss matches which will keep the act from actually occuring.
Third the sperm may not be able to get into the egg correctly. This has to do with chemicals on their surfaces which are not uniform across species.
Finally if the sperm does manage to penetrate the egg the chromosomes may be sufficiently different to prevent the formation of a zygote which the mothers body won’t abort.
This is what I remember from the one hour and thiry minute discusion in lab my intro to molecular cellular & developmental biological had about it because everyone wanted to know.
Hybrids are rare and generally occur between very similar species where the sperm can get into the egg and the result is enough like the mother’s species that the body will recognise it as viable offspring.
Absolutely.
Take one female of another species. Do the Marlon Perkins thing with the tranquilizer dart. Take syringe full of semen of male of that species and inject into vagina of tranquilized female. Repeat as necessary.
(Any questions?)
Holy crap! It’s a wossname…a talking dog???
I bet a human could impregnate a chimp, though I doubt the offspring would be fertile. We’re a lot closer to each other than other animals that occasionally produce offspring (i.e. horses and donkeys).
no scientific back up for this one, but i have been told that a camel is the only animal a human can impregnate. i’ve not done any research here, but if you are curious enough, here’s a lead. . .
BAAAAAAAAAAAA,BAAAAAAAAAAA
OH heck Knight, lets find out.
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- Somebody at SD should really do a statistical breakdown of these kinds of “adult” popular questions. I know about the usual old ones like “gry”, driveway/parkway and “why don’t phone psychics call you”, but they need to keep going until they get to the fun stuff like screwing animals, making drugs and blowing stuff up. - MC
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Yeah. Am I missing something, or is there some reason to think this would actually work?
http://www.sciam.com/explorations/030397clone/030397beards.html
(CAPS ADDED)
Wilmut and his co-workers accomplished their feat by transferring the nuclei from various types of sheep cells into unfertilized sheep eggs from which the natural nuclei had been removed by microsurgery. Once the transfer was complete, the recipient eggs contained a complete set of genes, just as they would if they had been fertilized by sperm. The eggs were then cultured for a period before being IMPLANTED INTO SHEEP THAT CARRIED THEM TO TERM, one of which culminated in a successful birth. The resulting lamb was, as expected, an exact genetic copy, or clone, of the sheep that provided the transferred nucleus, not of those that provided the egg.
Maybe I am clueless but isn’t this basically how they artificially inseminate cows for breading? It is my understanding that this is done all the time and is more common that just letting the cow and bull do what comes naturally.
Sure, and although the sheep generally have trouble with the cigarette afterwards, they do seem to enjoy the Appalichi Cola ™.
Certainly the fact that there are not “sheeple” walking around in New Zealand and Argentina tells us that humans and sheep do not produce viable offspring.
[Homer Simpson]Cow bread, mmmmm[/Homer Simpson]
Yeah, it’s basically artificial insemination, except actually tranquilising an animal is exceptionally rare. Standard procedure is to ‘manually manipulate’ the male ito donating, or electroshock his prostate. Not even rhinos are anaesthetised for the procedure.
No, it’s not more common than natural insemination.
And I don’t think that’s quite what the OP meant.
Achernar, I think that AHunter3 was too subtle for you. Read it again:
Get it? A non-human male, and a non-human female. Now read the OP again:
Yeah sure, get it?
Sofa king: Ah, but there ARE “sheeple”! Who else but them would keep Geraldo Rivera, Jerry Springer, MTV, etc. on the air?
I think what the OP is after is why the sperm of species A (Human) can’t physically or DNA wise fertilize the ovum of species B (chimpanzee, sheep, etc.). Suppose for the sake of argument the sperm and ovum were both in a dish to avoid the whole issue of cadillacs in closets, physical attraction, etc. My guess is that there is something with the DNA and chromosones and so on having to be close in number and structure.
Cloning isn’t part of the discussion because it’s a same-species thing; in fact, it’s a same-creature thing.
Big ol’ horse + Mrs. Seinfeld = Jerry
Been done. 