can a human produce a baby with a dog or another kind of animal that is of a different species...just curious
2007-02-10 06:14:54 · 13 answers · asked by kiwi 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
No.
Hypothetically you could have gametes (sperm, egg) from 2 distant mammalian species like human and dog and force them into syngamy (fertilization). However, the cell would be unable to undergo division (mitosis), because the egg's cellular machinery is set up to manipulate only chromosomes of the number and type of its own species. When a cell divides, it replicates all its chromosomes and then separates them into 2 identical sets; this is species-specific -- different species like dogs and humans don't even have the same number of chromosomes.
Like, if it were a human egg cell fertilized by a dog sperm, when it attempted to divide into two cells, the cell would not be able to find and properly segregate the chromosomes from the dog sperm, even if the cell had managed to replicate them all properly. So the cell would die.
Egg brings 23 human chromosomes
Sperm brings 39 dog chromosomes
Cell has 23+39 = 62 chromosomes
Replication = cell has 124 chromosomes
Segregation for mitosis = the *human* egg cell machinery would have to divide these into two sets of 23 human and 39 dog chromosomes, and there's no way it could pull it off. It's meant to separate 92 into two sets of 46, and has a very low error tolerance (for obvious reasons).
2007-02-10 06:34:52 · answer #1 · answered by zilmag 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The definition of species was originally "animals able to interbreed and produce fertile offspring", but this definition may not be practical (for obvious reasons!). Using that definition, two different species can never interbreed, at least not to produce fertile offspring. A mule is an example of an infertile offspring of two different species: a horse and a donkey.
Today's definitions of species may be based on molecular evidence (DNA and RNA analysis). For example, among bacteria, two strains that have less than 3% of their DNA in common are considered seperate species.
To answer your question: dogs and humans cannot interbreed.
2007-02-10 06:24:51 · answer #2 · answered by Marianne M 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No a human can't with a dog but two species can interbreed namely a horse can with a donkey. This produces a mule. The mule is sterile.
2007-02-10 06:20:05 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some species can interbreed but most cannot. For instance, a human cannot interbreed with any other species that we know of. However, horses and donkeys are able to interbreed but their offspring are always sterile (unable to reproduce).
2007-02-10 06:18:43 · answer #4 · answered by DiggyK 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sort of. For example, a lion and tiger can interbreed to have a tion or liger (which are awesome, btw) but the offspring is sterile- it can't have offspring of its own.
The species need to be closer than human and canine, though.
2007-02-10 06:19:01 · answer #5 · answered by Dead Robin 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Humans can't. Humans can only successfully breed with other humans. But there are some species that can interbreed, like lions and tigers (they make ligers), and dolphins and whales (they make wholphins). These animals are called hybrids.
Here's the wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid
2007-02-10 06:19:42 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I was taught that the definition of species is that they can't interbreed. They can try but it does not work.
2007-02-10 06:18:36 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The DNA has to be pretty close, but even then the offspring is usually sterile.
2007-02-10 06:18:47 · answer #8 · answered by alwaysmoose 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
nope, but horses, donkeys, and zebras have all interbred. other animals do it too if they are close in the same species.
2007-02-10 06:18:16 · answer #9 · answered by colera667 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
not naturally, there is human interference in some cases, no human interbreeding yet. horses and donkeys can though
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2007-02-10 08:43:35 · answer #10 · answered by wesnaw1 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋