• Question: Why can't humans and animals have children?

    Asked by itssmeemayaa to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 19 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Hiya – only animals in the same species are able to reproduce to make babies. That’s what we use to work out different species. There are some grey area’s like a horse and a donkey can mate to make a mule but mules can’t produce young themselves so you can still put horeses and donkeys as different species
      Hope that helps

    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Hi itssmeemayaa!

      Children are made with half their DNA from their mum and the other half from their dad. For the DNA to combine into a single organism, you need to have the same number of genes wrapped up in the same number of chromosomes in both the mum’s egg and the dad’s sperm, so that they can work in combination and make a viable new baby. Humans have about 23,000 genes in 23 chromosome pairs, and we inherit half a chromosome pair from each parent. Other animals have different numbers of chromosomes and genes, making combinations impossible – here’s a list!
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisms_by_chromosome_count

      🙂 Sarah

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