Why Can't Mules Have Babies?

MinuteEarth

Thanks to The Great Courses Plus for sponsoring this video. You can start your subscription with a free one-month trial today by visiting http://ow.ly/Yq7c302duah Hybrid animals are infertile because of the way their sex cells form. But sometimes, life finds a way. FYI: We try to leave jargon out of our videos, but if you want to learn more about this topic, here are some handy keywords to get your googling started: - Hybrid organisms: The offspring of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species or genera. - Mitosis: A process of cell division that produces copies of the original cell. - Meiosis: A process of cell dividion that produces new daughter cells with half the chromosome number of the original cell. - Sex cell, or gamete: a cell that fuses with another cell during fertilization (conception) in organisms that sexually reproduce. - Hemiclonal transmission: The rare occurence in which only maternal DNA gets passed along during the creation of sex cells. Species featured in this video: - Mule, is the offspring of a male donkey (jack) and a female horse (mare) - Liger, is a hybrid cross between a male lion (Panthera leo) and a female tiger (Panthera tigris) - Zonkey, is the offspring of a zebra and a donkey. Zebra hybrids are generally known as zebroids - Beefalo, also known as cattalo, is the offspring of a domestic cattle (Bos taurus) and an American buffalo (Bison bison) - Cama, is the offspring of a male dromedary camel and a female llama. ___________________________________________ Credits (and Twitter handles): Script Writer: David Goldenberg (@dgoldenberg) Script Editor: Emily Elert (@eelert) Video Illustrator: Chad Geran Video Director: Emily Elert (@eelert) Video Narrator: Emily Elert (@eelert) With Contributions From: Henry Reich, Alex Reich, Kate Yoshida, Ever Salazar, Omkar Bhagat, Peter Reich, Rachel Becker Music by: Nathaniel Schroeder: http://www.soundcloud.com/drschroeder Image Credits: Liger Hercules - Ed Quinn https://goo.gl/A8zgxO Zonkey - Flickr user Leogirly4life https://goo.gl/QAcza0 Cama - TaylorLlamas.com http://goo.gl/YCY3Zd Beefalo - Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary http://www.noahs-ark.org/ _________________________________________ Like our videos? Subscribe to MinuteEarth on YouTube: http://goo.gl/EpIDGd Get early, exclusive access to our videos on Vessel: https://goo.gl/hgD1iJ Support us on Patreon: https://goo.gl/ZVgLQZ Also, say hello on: Facebook: http://goo.gl/FpAvo6 Twitter: http://goo.gl/Y1aWVC And find us on itunes: https://goo.gl/sfwS6n ___________________________________________ If you liked this week’s video, we think you might also like these things: The Blitzkreiglr YouTube guys play the game Hybrid Animals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9WS5cd_59I ___________________________________________ References: Ryder, O., Chemnick, L., Bowling, A., Benirschke, K. (1985). Male mule foal qualifies as the offspring of a female mule and Jack donkey. Journal of Heredity 76 (379-381). Retrieved from http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/content/76/5/379 C.J. Zhao, Y.H. Qin, X.H. Lee, Ch. Wu (2006). Molecular and cytogenetic paternity testing of a male offspring of a hinny. Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics,123: 403-405. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17177697 Bucholz (2013). Colorado miracle mule foal lived short life, but was well-loved.The Denver Post. Retrieved from http://www.denverpost.com/2013/08/16/colorado-miracle-mule-foal-lived-short-life-but-was-well-loved/ Millon, L. (2016). Personal Communication. Antczak, D. (2016). Personal Communication.