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by guybrule on February 25th, 2004

guybrule

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Is it possible for a dog and a cat to mate and procreate?

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  • by Anonymous on February 25th, 2004

    Anonymous

    No, it is not possible.

    The definition of a “species” is the ability of two organisms to mate, and produce fertile offspring (that is, the offspring are themselves capable of mating and producing further offspring). If two organisms can do this with one another, then they are of the same species.

    Sometimes, organisms of two very similar species can mate, and produce an offspring, but the offspring produced by such a mating, called a “hybrid”, is sterile, and cannot produce any further offspring. *

    A mule is an example of such a hybrid. You cannot breed mules with each other to get more mules; mules are sterile and cannot reproduce. You get a mule by breeding a horse with a donkey. A horse and a donkey are two different species, but they are close enough to breed and produce a sterile hybrid offspring — a mule.

    Cats and dogs are not nearly that close.


    * There actually is a very, very, very small chance of a hybrid organism being able to mate and produce offspring. This has to do with the manner in which the hybrid's chromosomes are shuffled in producing gametes (sperm or egg cells). There is a very small chance of producing a gamete which has all the same chromosomes which that hybrid got from one parent; and such a gamete would be compatible with a mate that is of the same species as the parent whose chromosomes are in that gamete.

    The odds of this happening are one in (2 raised to the power of N), where N is the number of pairs of chromosomes that the organism has in each cell. I only know this N for humans. We humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. If there was some other species, that was similar enough to us to mate with us and produce a hybrid, then if that hybrid mated with either a human or the other species, and conditions were otherwise right for this mating to be successful, the chance of success in this case would be one in (2 to the power of 23), or 1 in 8,388,608.

    Comments

    • interesting read

      wickedwillie

      by wickedwillie on February 27th, 2004

    • FYI: my Web research says cats have 19 pairs of chromosomes, dogs 39.

      Seanette

      by Seanette on March 7th, 2004

    • Very interesting. Te varying chromosone count explains why cross breeds like the pegasus or the gryphon are myths not reality

      pun_nisher

      by pun_nisher on June 8th, 2004

    • Glenn Blaylock

      by Glenn Blaylock on October 25th, 2005

    • Wow, that was very interesting!

      jarvismom

      by jarvismom on April 21st, 2006

    • Actually, A malee MULE is sterile and cannot produce offspring, but a femalee HINNY can produce.

      heather.durham.10.03.09

      by heather.durham.10.03.09 on January 7th, 2011

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