Out of morbid curiosity, have there been any documented cases of products of bestiality? Human/Dog, and Human/Ape hybrids would probably be the most likely to occur. I recall the Straight Dope article on this simply stating “you can’t park a corvette in a closet.” Or something similar.
Surely these animals would be stillborn, but has there been any cases of a human (or animal) carrying the product of bestiality to full term?
As I recall from my High School Biology, by definition, different species can’t interbreed.
Even humans and Chimpanzees are too genetically dissimilar to reproduce. I have never heard of a Human/anything hybrid.
Some theorize that a Early-Human/Neanderthal hybrid was possible, but there’s never been any conclusive proof of that, any there are no known traces of Neanderthal DNA in our blood. We’ve sequenced some Neanderthal DNA (which we were very lucky to find at all, frankly) and found none of it in any of the Modern Humans that have been tested against.
In all likelyhood, a Neanderthal/Early-Human hybrid would’ve been sterile anyway (much like most Mules are), owing to the differing numbers of Chromosomes, so it’s not like even if they had reproduced, it’s unlikely their offspring would have.
The more complex an organism, the less margin for error between the reproducing couple (IIRC my Biology class).
Mule, Liger, Zebra(mixed with a bunch of others), etc.
No. There are no such documented cases.
This is incorrect. Many good species are completely interfertile, as for example many ducks, all members of the genus Canis (dogs, wolves, coyotes, jackals), and others. The definition is not that they can’t interbreed, it’s that they normally don’t interbreed in nature (due to different courtship behavior, breeding seasons, etc). And of course, many species can produce viable yet sterile offspring, such as horses and donkeys (mules) and lions and tigers (ligers and tigons.)
While no hybrids have been documented, it has not been definitively established that a human-chimpanzee hybrid is impossible. I think it’s unlikely, but some more distantly related species have interbred, for example camel and llama.
There is no reason to think that Neanderthals had a different number of chromosomes than we do. In any event, even though chimps have a different number of chromosomes than humans, there is evidence that early human ancestors interbred with chimpanzees. And some animal populations with differing chromosome number are quite capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
Would fusion of sperm and egg under laboratory conditions make breeding a human with a non-human animal more possible? Of course nobody sane would ever do it for ethical reasons, but you never know what some mad scientist in a dark personal laboratory somewhere might hatch up…
Right right right. It’s the definition by which there’s a dozen different species of humans.
It might bypass some potential barriers to hybridization, such as differing conditions in the female reproductive tract. However, the major barriers are likely to be genetic (differing chromosome numbers, differences in developmental genes), taking place after fertilization, and in vitro fertilization would do nothing to counteract this.
No. This is incorrect.
Right right right.
If you knew it was incorrect, then why did you post it?
Human/dog? I mean, human/chimp, I can see theoretically, but humans and dogs aren’t even in the same superorder. They’re Laurasiatheria and we’re Euarchontoglires. We’re more closely related to rats than we are to dogs.
If humans and dogs could reproduce, we’d have had concrete evidence long before now. Ditto for humans and sheep. Also donkeys, goats, …
My reasoning behind my statement was simply that there is not that much of a size difference between humans and dogs which are the most likely candidate for bestiality.
I take it you’re referring to the more recent vision of canid taxonomy, under which the wolf and domestic dog (and in some versions, also the coyote, etc.) are reconceptualized as “subspecies” within the same canis lupus, and some of the previously identified “subspecies” in turn reclassified as mere “populations”.
Of course, once upon a time there were different coexistent species of humans and hominids (and probably other now-extinct lineages of Great Apes). AFAIK not having categorically identified “Neanderthal DNA” in modern humans (hasn’t been really ruled out yet, has it?) would not really prove anything re: impossibility or viability or if then it would result in fertile or infertile hybrids; sometimes mere impracticality or difficulty to mate, carry to term, and grow the offspring to adulthood under natural conditions, can be as effective as chromosomal incompatibility in preventing the perpetuation of the lineage.
Answer to the OP- the Minotaur.
So what’s the offspring of a minotaur and centaur like? :eek:
Does this mean there is no such thing as man-bear-pig?
Um, there’s a significant size difference in the genitalia, where it counts.
Yeah, human/dog is out. I really wouldn’t expect bushbaby/raccoon to work, & I would expect those to be (slightly) closer together cladistically than hominid/canid.
Orangutan/chimpanzee? I don’t know how much the chromosomes have differentiated.
Human/bonobo? Bonobo/chimpanzee? I just don’t know.
But seriously, there are huge physical difficulties for humans attempting to mate with any of the extant hominoids. Whatever potential subspecies of hominid were interfertile with Cro-Magnon man presumably died out or were absorbed into the main stream. Great apes, otoh, are ridiculously strong, & have (except for bonobos) rather different estrus cycles & sexual behaviors from us. The world may never know.
Um, I dunno, but her name would be Millicent 