Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Hello!
Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.
Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....
Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.
Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.
In biology the other day, my teacher said that if two animals of a different species were to breed, then they would produce sterile babies (meaning the babies can't have babies). Then can jungle corns (cornsnake x kingsnake) produce babies?
I have actually heard of jungle corns producing offspring. I don't know how fertile those babies are though. There is another mechanism called "F2 hybrid breakdown" where the hybrids might be able to reproduce, but a few generations down the line their offspring can't anymore. I don't know if this is true with jungle corns or not though...
Yes that is the reason... Good job Mo... the reason they are usually sterile is the fact that... they have a odd number of chromosomes... humans have 46 (23 from each parent)... if a Specimen had only 27 chromosomes altogether then it wouldnt be able to produce... A good example to this is the mule... the horse has 45 chromosomes which it passes to its F1 generation (45 isnt the real amount of chromosomes in a horse just example) and a donkey has 24 chromosomes which it gives to its F1. the F1 would produce a Mule which would have 69 chromosomes (since its a Odd it is sterile)... HMMM I need to read my genetics book... but do all the chromosomes have to be paired up with another set of Chromosomes inorder for a the speciman to be able to reproduce?
If I'm not mistaken (and I ABSOLUTELY could be), the rules cited above for hybrids are true for mamalian hybridization (mules, for example), but do not hold true for reptilian hybridization. So, I believe jungle corns CAN reproduce with no problems. I know that I have seen 3/4 corn jungles, and this can only happen by breeding jungle corns to pure corns.
Someone else more up on hybrid possibilities may come here and say I'm an idiot D), but I think I'm right on this. Anymore help out there?
Jungle corns can reproduce just fine. There are different theories to why. I am not sure myself which theory gets my vote, but another one is that perhaps kingsnakes are classified incorrectly and they really are not as unrelated as the books say they are. The only thing I know for sure is that Jungle corns can produce offspring.
How interesting! Thanks for the info. I was just curious. My teacher could have been only refering to mammals since he only gave mules and ligers (lion x tiger) as examples. Thank you for clearing up my little confusion.
But I think even mules are sometimes, though very infrequently, fertile...
I think the point that perhaps the way we have organized them into little categories taxonomically (word??) is flawed.
I know from having kept African Cichlids for many years, names and classifications can and do change as we learn more about the animals themselves and what types of familial relationships exist beyond our current ability to discern... (jeez, where's the spell and grammer checker... it's been a long day...)
Male mules are never fertile and only about 1 in 10000 females can produce offspring (horses have 64 chromosomes, donkeys 62 and mules and asses have 63.) As for jungle corns (which, btw I personally know nothing about ) they can breed ok. This is according to my zoology lecturer who is standing right behind me!
Plus, you dont have to have to have all your chromosomes paired to reproduce...look at downs syndrome couples. OK so the chance of their pregnancy going to term is low and the chance of their baby being born 'normal' is lower but never the less they are fertile.
