Are mules considered a species?

Question

Donkeys and horses breed together to create mules, which cannot breed as they are a hybrid between two species. would mules be a new species?

Answer 1

nope


Why is it that different species can not reproduce with each other?

THe technical term is reproductive isolation. The root cause is that their genes are too different, but this can produce various different effective causes. Perhaps the members of the species will just not look attractive to each other. And if the members do mate (or are forced to mate in the laboratory) the different genes may make it impossible for a viable zygote (initial single cell of the offspring) to form, or if formed to successfully attach to the placenta (in mammals), or if attached to successfull develop thorugh all the stages of embryology.

Some species, such as horses and asses, are close enough to produce a viable offspring (mule or hinny), but those offspring are then sterile.

Mutation and selection do tend to produce reproductive isolation, and human scholars then use reproductive isolation to define species, but that definition is not quite perfect. There are several cases of organisms which exist in populations spread out in a line like beads on a string. Each population will breed fertilely with its neighbors on either side, but the two populations at the end of the "string" are reproductively isolated. How many species is that? Or consider my ever-recurring example of North American canids. Wolves, coyotes, domestic pooches, none of them entirely reproductively isolated from the others.

Answer 2

no
In its common modern meaning, a mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, which is classified as a kind of F1 hybrid. The reverse, the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey, is called a hinny. The term "mule" (Latin mulus) was formerly applied to the offspring of any two creatures of different species - in modern usage, a "hybrid".

The mule, easier to breed and usually larger in size than a hinny, has monopolized the attention of breeders[citation needed]. The chromosome match-up more often occurs when the jack (male donkey) is the sire and the mare (female horse) is the dam. Sometimes people let a stallion (male horse) run with a jenny (female donkey) for as long as six years before she becomes pregnant. Mules and hinnies are almost always sterile (see fertile mules below for rare cases). The sterility is attributed to the differing number of chromosomes of the two species: donkeys have 62 chromosomes, whereas horses have 64. Their offspring thus have 63 chromosomes which cannot evenly divide.

A female mule, called a "molly", that has estrus cycles and can carry a fetus, can occasionally occur naturally as well as through embryo transfer. The difficulty is in getting the molly pregnant in the first place.

Answer 3

No, mules are classified as F1 Hybrids. F1 hybrids is a term used in genetics and selective breeding. F1 stands for Filial 1, the first filial generation seeds/plants or animal offspring resulting from a cross mating of distinctly different parental types.

The offspring of distinctly different parental types produce a new, uniform variety with specific and/or desirable characteristics from either or both parents. In fish breeding, those parents frequently are two closely related fish species, while in plant and animal genetics those parents usually are two inbred lines. Mules are F1 hybrids between a female horse and a male donkey.

Answer 4

I don't think hybrids are considered a new species.
Just an aside, there are in fact female mules that become pregnant every year (just not all of them). Just this year, one herd in Colorado had like 2 or 3 mollys that were exposed to a stallion with the rest of the mares and turned up pregnant and gave birth (naturally) to viable offspring.
Mule stallions (which are rare, as most people snip thoses nads asap to avoid problems) actually have sperm, they just have very low motility. They are poor swimmers.
Just thought I'd share.

Answer 5

mules, that are the consequence of a mare (woman hores) and male donkey being bred, are sterile. Sterile animals won't be able to be categorized right into a genus and animals might desire to be in a genus to be in a species so subsequently they don't seem to be a species.

Answer 6

MULES ARE HYBRIDS THE RESULT OF A UNION OF A MARE AND A DONKEY AND ARE NOT A SPECIES SINCE THEY ARE INFERTILE AS WELL.

Answer 7

They are sterile so I wouldn't think they could be a species

Answer 8

No.

Nor an old species, either.

Answer 9

Since they can't reproduce, no.