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Do you think mules and hinnies will ever evolve as reproducing species? (Maybe it's a silly question; googling for answers didn't help...but I am curious.)
No...for a couple of reasons...both related to the basic ideas behind the Theory of evolution.
First, there is no selection pressure. Species evolve because there is some sort of selection pressure on them.
Second, evolution occurs within a species when certain individuals with certain traits have a reproductive advantage over individuals who do not have those traits. If a species (using the term loosely here) can't reproduce, there is no way for those desirable traits to be passed on to the next generation of individuals.
I'm still trying to understand the chromosome factor. If a horse has 64 chromosomes and a donkey has 62, and each one gives half of its chromosomes (32 + 31) to produce the 63 chromosomes in a mule, then what happened to the leftover chromosome that the horse gave?
So much to learn...time to bone up on reproduction science, I guess.
I'm still trying to understand the chromosome factor. If a horse has 64 chromosomes and a donkey has 62, and each one gives half of its chromosomes (32 + 31) to produce the 63 chromosomes in a mule, then what happened to the leftover chromosome that the horse gave?
So much to learn...time to bone up on reproduction science, I guess.
Not all mules and hinnys are sterile. I read an article once I think it was in Equus Magizine that spoke of a mule herd that had offspring. Apparently, there can be a mutation that makes them able to reproduce. Nobody knows how common this is because most people would never think to try and breed them. However, like in the article I mentioned, when a large mixed (male and female) herd is kept together occassionally an offspring is produced. The article also mentioned the owners of the herd didn't know which mule sired (fathered) the foal.
Last edited by lmabernathy; 01-13-2011 at 11:13 AM..
Well, from my memory (for what's worth) I thought that each parent gives up half of their chromosomes during meiosis. And if that's true, then in this case, what happens to the extra chromosome of the horse? For some odd reason, I had it in my head that in order to mate, the parents need to have the same amount of chromosomes. Guess that's not the case.
Not all mules and hinnys are sterile. I read an article once I think it was in Equus Magizine that spoke of a mule herd that had offspring. Apparently, there can be a mutation that makes them able to reproduce. Nobody knows how common this is because most people would never think to try and breed them. However, like in the article I mentioned, when a large mixed (male and female) herd is kept together occassionally an offspring is produced. The article also mentioned the owners of the herd didn't know which mule sired (fathered) the foal.
That's interesting. Time to look up "mule herding."
Cornevin and Lesbre stated that in 1873 an Arab mule in Africa was bred to a stallion and produced female offspring. The parents and the offspring were sent to the Jardin d'Acclimatation in Paris. The mule produced a second female offspring sired by the same stallion and then two male offspring, one sired by a donkey and the other by a stallion. The female progeny were fertile, but their offspring were feeble and died at birth.
Cossar Ewart recorded an Indian case in which a female mule gave birth to a male colt.
The best documented fertile mule mare was "Krause," who produced two male offspring when bred back to her own sire (biological father).
In the 1920s, "Old Beck," a mare mule {at Texas A&M), produced a mule daughter called "Kit." When Old Beck was bred to a horse stallion she produced a horse son (i.e., the horse stallion sired horse foals). When bred to a donkey, she produced mule offspring.
In Morocco, a mare mule produced a male foal that was 75 percent donkey and 25 percent horse (i.e., she passed on a mixture of genes instead of passing on her maternal chromosomes in the expected way).
A comparable case is that of a fertile hinny (donkey mother, horse sire - the reverse of a mule) in China. Her offspring, named "Dragon Foal," was sired by a donkey. Scientists expected a donkey foal if the mother had passed on her maternal chromosomes in the same way as a mule. However, Dragon Foal resembles a strange donkey with mule-like features. Her chromosomes and DNA tests confirm that she is a previously undocumented combination.
The article I read was in the last 5 years-I'm still looking for it (I believe it was mule to mule reproduction), but so far female mules can sometimes reproduce when bred to either a donkey or horse stud
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