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This is a list of genetic hybrids which is limited to well documented cases of animals of differing species able to create hybrid offspring which may or may not be infertile. Hybrids should not be confused with genetic chimeras , such as that between sheep and goat known as the geep .
Hybrid incompatibility occurs when the offspring of two closely related species are not viable or suffer from infertility. Charles Darwin posited that hybrid incompatibility is not a product of natural selection, stating that the phenomenon is an outcome of the hybridizing species diverging, rather than something that is directly acted upon by selective pressures. [4]
A mule is a sterile hybrid of a male donkey and a female horse.Mules are smaller than horses but stronger than donkeys, making them useful as pack animals.. In biology, a hybrid is the offspring resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms of different varieties, subspecies, species or genera through sexual reproduction.
However, when hybrids are produced between both species, the gene flow between the two will continue to be impeded as the hybrid males are sterile. Also, and in contrast with the great vigor shown by the sterile males, the descendants of the backcrosses of the hybrid females with the parent species are weak and notoriously non-viable.
Hybrid speciation in animals is primarily homoploid. While thought not to be very common, a few animal species are the result of hybridization, mostly insects such as tephritid fruitflies that inhabit Lonicera plants [20] and Heliconius butterflies, [21] [22] as well as some fish, [15] one marine mammal, the clymene dolphin, [23] a few birds.
Hybrid sterility can be caused by different closely related species breeding and producing offspring. These animals are usually sterile due to the different numbers of chromosomes between the two parents. The imbalance results in offspring that is viable but not fertile, as is the case with the mule.
For hybrids between two species of the genus Panthera (lions, tigers, jaguars, and leopards), see Panthera hybrid. There are no known hybrids between Neofelis (the clouded leopard) and other genera. By contrast, many genera of Felinae are interfertile with each other, though few hybridize under natural conditions, and not all combinations are ...
Genetic incompatibility describes the process by which mating yields offspring that are nonviable, prone to disease, or genetically defective in some way. In nature, animals can ill afford to devote costly resources for little or no reward, ergo, mating strategies have evolved to allow females to choose or otherwise determine mates which are more likely to result in viable offspring.