Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!ptsfa!ihnp4!ihlpa!lew
From: lew@ihlpa.UUCP
Newsgroups: talk.origins,sci.bio
Subject: question about animal hybridization
Message-ID: <3353@ihlpa.ATT.COM>
Date: Fri, 20-Mar-87 10:48:29 EST
Article-I.D.: ihlpa.3353
Posted: Fri Mar 20 10:48:29 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Mar-87 22:31:23 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 19
Keywords: evolution speciation
Xref: utgpu talk.origins:444 sci.bio:161

In a discussion about possible mechanisms of speciation, the question
of genetic compatibility as a criterion for typological classification
came up.  That is, animals which when cross-bred produced viable, fertile
offspring might be classified together.  ( I know this is not the definition
of species !)

I asserted that this criterion doesn't generate an equivalence relation,
since there might be populations A, B, and C, such that A is compatible
( by the above criterion ) with B, B is compatible with C, but A is not
compatible with C.

My question is, is there an example of this intransitivity among known
populations of animals? ( N.B. animals, not plants! )

I found some interesting information in Enc. Brit. about trout hybrids
and a few other things, but nothing that specifically qualified as a
realization of my hypothetical example.

	Lew Mammel, Jr.