The act of mating with a species other than your own may not be as ill advised or peculiar as it seems. Recent research indicates that hybridization is not only widespread in nature but it might also spawn many more new species than previously thought.
A growing number of studies has been presented as evidence that two animal species can combine to produce a third, sexually viable species in a process known as hybrid speciation. Newly identified examples include both insects and fish.
This evolutionary process, while known to be common in plants, has long been considered extremely rare among animals.
Animals are generally thought to evolve the opposite way, when a single species gradually splits into two over many generations.
But some scientists now believe that the behavior that has been called animals’ sexual blunders could be an important force in their evolution.
“Given the fact there have been several reported cases of hybrid speciation in animals, I think it’s possible that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said biologist James Mallet of University College London in the United Kingdom.
Mallet said that advances in technologies for decoding genes are only now giving scientists the opportunity to make such discoveries.
Hybrid-formed species are usually extremely difficult to detect because of their close physical resemblance to their parent species, he said.
But today scientists are able to collect the detailed molecular data needed to identify previously unrecognized hybrids.
And the story goes on
James Owen for National Geographic News
The biggest cat is a hybrid of the type.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/250400/liger/
Why do we call interspecies sex in animals hybrid speciation but give it the emotive label of GMO in plants? Often – but not always – it is no more than hastened human assisted hybridization.
This isn’t really that new. Most interbreeding of species results in infertility if any child is produced. We may need to redefine the term species though if we start this argument. Is a poodle a different species than a labrador? Some say so. Is a bluejay a different species than a pigeon? When I can make a man bear pig for my own enjoyment, i’ll believe it.
Seems to me that GMO is something quite different. If you take a gene that is present in animal species and put it into a plant species (or vice versa) you have done something that would never have occurred, barring (of course) a mutation that independently introduces that gene into the side that didn’t have it before. It is generally accepted that plants and animals aren’t capable of hybridization naturally…
There’s also the fact that the things we engineer plants for typically follow our narrow short-term interest and are not necessarily the best things for the ecosystems into which these genes will be released sooner or later. Plants go flinging their reproductive bits all over the place (the floozies!!) and it’s simply not realistic to expect that those new genes aren’t going to end up in other species where the effects could be disastrous.
This has been done for a long time it’s called a Mule The mix of a donkey and a horse the key it the offspring cannot reproduce.
This is proof of the intricacies that God has created.
“This is proof of the intricacies that God has created.” lol!
Hmmm….the article forgot to mention rape, necrophilia and pedophilia. Could it be that these are also important forces in evolution? If not, why not?