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Hybridization and sterility

PuffDragon

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I am not too familiar with crosses among reptiles but it came to mind that often enough hybrids from two different species of the same genus are often sterile. Some examples I can think of would be a mule, hinny, siberian/bengal tiger cross, or even a liger. So with that in mind are crosses that we come across of our tegu's infact sterile? Or to broaden the question; in any reptile cross? Does anyone know of a case where a cross might have been bred back into a normal with success? I thought this was cool and would like to know if anyone else has some thoughts/knowledge on the subject.
 

VARNYARD

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This would depend on the chromosomes; the animals below have different chromosome counts. This causes them to be sterile.

Beefalo or cattalo: American bison and cow
Cama: camel and llama
Grolar or pizzly: grizzly bear and polar bear
Leopon: leopard and lion
Liger: male lion and female tiger
Mule: male donkey and female horse
Tigon: male tiger and female lion
Wolphin: false killer whale and a dolphin
Yakalo: yak and buffalo
Zeedonk: zebra and donkey
Zorse: zebra and horse

But remember, some of these have reproduced before, although it is very rare to see this.

However, animals that have the same number of chromosomes are not really a true hybrid animal but rather a cross within the species.

As with Wolf x Dog, they have the same number of chromosomes and are also often called a hybrid, however all dogs are created from the wolf and therefore they have the same chromosome count and can reproduce. They are sub-species and have the same number of chromosomes. Tegus would have the same count as well, I do not see why they could not reproduce as they have the same chromosome count and are sub-species rather than separate species that would be bred to create a true hybrid.

Here is some helpful info:

An example of an intraspecific hybrid is a hybrid between a Bengal tiger and an Amur (Siberian) tiger. Interspecific hybrids are bred by mating two species, normally from within the same genus. The offspring display traits and characteristics of both parents. The offspring of an interspecific cross very often are sterile; thus, hybrid sterility prevents the movement of genes from one species to the other, keeping both species distinct.[5] Sterility is often attributed to the different number of chromosomes the two species have, for example donkeys have 62 chromosomes, while horses have 64 chromosomes, and mules and hinnies have 63 chromosomes. Mules, hinnies, and other normally sterile interspecific hybrids cannot produce viable gametes because the extra chromosome cannot make a homologous pair at meiosis, meiosis is disrupted, and viable sperm and eggs are not formed. However, fertility in female mules has been reported with a donkey as the father.[6] Most often other mechanisms are used by plants and animals to keep gametic isolation and species distinction. Species often have different mating or courtship patterns or behavours, the breeding seasons may be distinct and even if mating does occur antigenic reactions to the sperm of other species prevent fertilization or embryo development. The Lonicera fly is the first known animal species that resulted from natural hybridization. Until the discovery of the Lonicera fly, this process was known to occur in nature only among plants.

While it is possible to predict the genetic composition of a backcross on average, it is not possible to accurately predict the composition of a particular backcrossed individual, due to random segregation of chromosomes. In a species with two pairs of chromosomes, a twice backcrossed individual would be predicted to contain 12.5% of one species' genome (say, species A). However, it may, in fact, still be a 50% hybrid if the chromosomes from species A were lucky in two successive segregations, and meiotic crossovers happened near the telomeres. The chance of this is fairly high, 1/2^(2Ã?Æ?Ã?â??Ã?â? Ã¢â?¬â?¢Ã?Æ?Ã?¢Ã?¢ââ?¬Å¡Ã?¬Ã?¢ââ??¬Ã?Â2)=1/16 (where the "two times two" comes about from two rounds of meiosis with two chromosomes); however, this probability declines markedly with chromosome number and so the actual composition of a hybrid will be increasingly closer to the predicted composition.

Hybrids are often named by the portmanteau method, combining the names of the two parent species. For example, a zeedonk is a cross between a zebra and a donkey. Since the traits of hybrid offspring often vary depending on which species was mother and which was father, it is traditional to use the father's species as the first half of the portmanteau. For example, a liger is a cross between a male lion and a female tiger, while a tigon is a cross between a male tiger and a female lion.
 

Swtbrat

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Well I don't know much and I am the first to admit it.
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I have 3 male Tegus and a red and blue cross thats unsexed so far.
The cross has some weird eyes,its not blind but the iris color which is dark in all the regular Tegus,in the cross the iris color is light and makes the poor thing look like its scared all the time.Its kind of creepy.
Thats the only thing I noticed thats not normal,but its very normal for that cross because I have seen 6 total and all have that same eye color.

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Brat!
 

AB^

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Sorry but in my opinion hybrids and crosses are crap.
Unless it's a naturally occuring intergrade why would you even be interested in super balls, red x blue tegus, flavi x argus monitors etc etc.
sina-corns, king corns etc etc etc. People producing these animals are looking for nothing more than to play god or to turn a profit producing garbage animals, evolution has created animals for a good reason and the frankestein mentality some people have to create something "new" is just absurd.
 

Swtbrat

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Well as a woman I need no reason or excuse to buy whatever I want and I wanted a Blue and Red cross.If you don't want to buy a hybrid thats cool with me but because I did want to buy one doesn't make me wrong.
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Brat!
 

AB^

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Swtbrat said:
Well as a woman I need no reason or excuse to buy whatever I want and I wanted a Blue and Red cross.If you don't want to buy a hybrid thats cool with me but because I did want to buy one doesn't make me wrong.
nanny.gif



f010.gif


Brat!

Brat,

I was making my post while you were posting yours- which means it wasnt directed at you. If you want to own such an animal that is your desicion. If you want to produce them, well then... that's another story.
 

Swtbrat

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Well I am hoping the cross is a Male just because I like males better and I have no desire to breed tegus.And if its a female you know what trouble I will have.
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He is 5 months old now but I have no idea what it is.

AB I am very seldom serious but one way to tell if I am truely serious is I type really fast and make a ton of typos.

Brat!
 

VARNYARD

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snakehandler, the answer is yes, but no more so than crossing two types of dogs or cats. It might even make thenm stronger, as mutts are in dogs, however, there needs to be some studies done to see the overall effects.
 

snakehandler

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well, dogs and cats is a different story. dogs are all the same in genetic terms. same applies to cats. there are no subspecies in dogs since they all evolve form the same ancestor and are domesticated animals. In tegus however and snakes there are subspecies that evolved over thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of years.
so mixing them in captivity makes the realtively small captive gene pool get affected and after some time you cant tell wheter an animal is argentine or bolivian red. in my opinion those different subspecies have their own different needs and appearance and should never be mixed.
 

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