• Question: Do you think a different species of mating such as mooses and zebras could give birth to a feritle male/female and start a new species, if this happened would you study more animals to see if it could happen again? :)

    Asked by jenmooseysmith to Sam on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I think it unlikely that mooses and zebras could mate together because they are quite different biologically. In biology we have several different definitions for what it means by “species”. People tend to use the definition that suits them best. But the usual one is that we think that two things are the same species if they can mate together and produce fertile offspring most of the time. So for example all the different types of dog are actually all just types of wolf, because all of them could mate with a wolf and produce fertile offspring.

      The sort of thing you’re thinking of has been done more in plants, where for example different types of wheat have been bred together to make really high quality crops. This is why we can still make enough food to feed the world (although of course lots of people starve because the food doesn’t get to them).

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_breeding

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