Posted by:
THAsia
at Fri Oct 17 14:35:14 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by THAsia ]
I think it is a mistake to assume that hybrids cannot produce viable offspring. I don't think taxonomy needs to change to make hybrid viability explainable. You can have two separate species hybridize and produce offspring that are fertile and not have to assume those parental species must be the same genus. I sometimes wonder if hybridization isn't *one* of natures ways to produce new species over time. There are snakes that can self fertilize if no males are around, some seem hermaphroditic, so it is not too much of a stretch to believe that hybrids can be fertile and fit into taxomony. I think the old way to believe in hybrids was that they would always be infertile. In reptiles and specifically turtles this does not seem to be the case. Cuora flavomarginata and Geoemyda japonica hybridize on islands in South Japan. These hybrids are more beautiful than the genetically pure animals, just like serrata is. I believe that these hybrids are also fertile. There is no way that we can place Geoemyda japonica and Cuora flavomarginata in the same genus. I have heard of hybrids of Pyxidea and Geoemyda doing the same thing. It is very interesting and hybrids are definately worth studying. The problem with genetic research is that it doesn't always flow with morphological research. You have to deal with ancestry from fossil records to extend the relationships of present day turtles to those of fossils using morphology. I just don't feel that Pyxidea is close enough to Cuora morphologically to throw away morphology and believe totally with what the genetics tell us. But the people working on this are far more experienced than me but it is frustrating when you look at animals so distinct and yet the genetics tell you something else.
Best wishes,
Mike N.
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- mouhotii - bigboi, Mon Oct 13 02:05:26 2003
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RE: citation - THAsia, Fri Oct 17 14:35:14 2003