• Question: why cant mules reproduce

    Asked by Annabel to Alex, Amanda, Marco, Olivia, Sha on 8 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Alex Evans

      Alex Evans answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      Mules are the resulting animal that is made when a horse and a donkey have a baby.

      DNA is required from both parents to make a baby. Horse DNA is organised into 64 chromosomes (32 pairs) and donkey DNA is organised into 62 chromosomes (31 pairs). For comparison, human DNA is organised into 46 chromosomes, or 23 pairs!

      When the horse and the donkey DNA is combined to make a baby mule, it will have 63 chromosomes (31.5 pairs) – which is enough to create a working mule, but it won’t be able to combine properly with other chromosomes to make new baby mules!

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