Xref: utzoo sci.bio:2694 rec.pets:10894
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!dcs100
From: DCS100@psuvm.psu.edu (Dave Schweisguth)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,rec.pets
Subject: Re: What distinguishes a species?
Message-ID: <90037.231419DCS100@PSUVM.BITNET>
Date: 7 Feb 90 04:14:19 GMT
References: <22448@siemens.siemens.com> <202@53iss6.Waterloo.NCR.COM>
 <25520@gryphon.COM> <3251@hp-sdd.hp.com>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 27

In article <3251@hp-sdd.hp.com>, andrea@hp-sdd.hp.com (Andrea K. Frankel) says:
[much recursive net.litter deleted]
>Dogs are all in one species because their offspring are fertile.
>Physical difficulties notwithstanding - if you (ahem) gathered sperm
>from a St.  Bernard and artificially inseminated a Chihuahua in heat,
>you would get offspring which were themselves fertile.

In fact, the majority of turkeys raised in the U.S. are incapable of natural
mating due to the high body weight for which they are intentionally selected.
Reproduction takes place by artificial insemination with fresh semen. [Frozen
doesn't work ... but that's another story.] If physical inability to mate is a
criterion for speciation, the turkey farmers of America create, miscgenate, and
exterminate hundreds of millions of different species a year!

Neat, eh?

I apologize for any relevance this may have lost to rec.pets people, but I'll
leave it to followers-up to edit the groups line.
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