Why aren't racially mixed people sterile?
today in biology class our teacher told us that if two different species like a horse and a donkey mate, the offspring is sterile.
if this is so, how was barack obama able to have children if he had a white mother and a black father, both different species.
-------------------------------------------------------
answers:
Sherwood Forrester say: 'Race' is a meaningless word as applied to the human species. Horses (equus caballus) and donkeys (equus asinus) are different, but related, species, with different numbers of chromosomes.
We're all h. sapiens, regardless of the skin color -- it's not like white people are h. caucasus and black people are h. africanus. And because Yahoo Answers automatically replaces the Latin genus 'h-o-m-o' with ****, I have to use the abbreviation. Insert eyeroll here.
-
Cowboy say: People are all the SAME species - you must be a republican idiot
LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...
-
JSG say: There is ONE human race. What makes you human does not change.
-
ob1knob say: White and black humans are as closely related as horses of the SAME BREED.
White studs and white mares get foals, not mules. Even if they are from different breeds.
By the way, human breeds don't exist.
What you call human races is more similar to horse coat colors than to horse breeds, let alone other equid species.
-
jeffrcal say: Because people of all races are the same species.
Answer to Zirp:
Sure there are lots of mixed race people (myself included) and where you draw the line for races is somewhat arbitrary. However, that such a thing as races exist I should think is self evident. Here, let me show you: below is a photo of a soccer team. It is either the Norwegian soccer team or the Nigerian soccer team. Can you tell which team it is? If so, how?
-
say: Genetics challenged, are we? Man, I can see why they forced trump university to refund all you guys tuition money. You didn’t learn sh*it in that place. Anyway,, your mama mated with the family golden retriever , and you weren’t born sterile were you? Question answered....
-
shoeshopper3 say: How ignorant.
-
Spock (rhp) say: all humans are same species. all humanity came from Africa over multiple events spanning more than a million years. race is merely genetic adaptation to intense or absence of solar radiation in our daily lives [and resulting vit D]
-
Pearl L say: cause they have a right to have kids just like anyone else
-
Prince say: Because God did not intend it that way. And, if you don't believe in God, then it did not evolve that way either. It is mean to keep hating Black people. They contribute to this Society and pay taxes, serve in the military, have fought in foreign wars, have saved the lives of millions of White people working as policemen and firemen, as nurses and doctors, and serving in combat have saved comrades at arms who were White. Black US citizens have donated blood and saved White lives that way and Black people have donated organs and saved White lives that way. Black people have helped White people out by the side of the road and have donated their life savings to institutions that have served White people as well as Black people and people of other races. They've been doing these things since before you were conceived and born. God created these people so take it up with the Almighty!
-
Tom V say: Do you think that you and black people belong to different species?
-
Elaine M say: Because we're not two different species like the horse and donkey. We're ONE species with various skin colorations and minor differences physically.
-
JASON say: Horses and donkeys are distantly related. All mankind is very closely related.
-
John P say: Because there is only one "human race". It (you, me, everybody) originated in eastern Africa with dark skins starting around 200,000 years ago, and gradually spreads across the world. Skin tone varied over the millennia according to geographical conditions, and the need to control or promote the production of vitamin D (I think, possibly another vitamin).
-
Eisbär say: Because they are the same species and have the same number of chromosomes. 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.
-
R K say: because they aren't different species you dolt.
-
say: Did your teacher also tell you that the only reason caucasian people exist (Just like me btw), is because of long term skin pigmintation, over countless generations?, or did you just want to come on here sputtering your dogshyte alt/right propaganda?
-
StephenWeinstein say: Because they are not different species. All humans are the same species.
-
Thorn say: there is only one human race
-
Mike say: All Humans
-
sparrow say: Because they are the same species. They're not so different.
-
Johnson say: You Trump voters are insane.
-
iamanonymous say: a golden retriever can mate with a black lab and have pups as they are the same species . the same as a white man can have kids with a black woman as we are the same species , unless you are a red neck then you can only have children with your own family
-
TNO say: Horse and mules are different species, which is why their offspring (aka mules) are usually sterile. And for all you Napoleon Dynamite fans, ligers actually exist and these tiger/lion hybrids are often in the same boat. Sterility is expected when one's parents are two completely different species.
But mules and ligers make a horrible comparison for "mixed-race" human beings. A better analogy would to look at Canis familiaris...aka dogs. Dog breeds are the same species, which is why goldendooles (golden retrievers and poodles) and Shih-poos (Shih Tsus and poodles) aren't sterile: Their parents are the same species! They're different breeds...much like "mixed-race" individuals have parents of different races. As the same species, there is nothing inherent to make them infertile. Dogs do have a case where actual mixed-race breeding between two species works, in the form of wolfdogs...but wolves are the ancestors of dogs and are very, very genetically similar to dogs, to the point where some argue that dogs are still just a subspecies of wolf. That's an exception to the rule of two clearly distinct species not reliably producing reproductive offspring.
I think a huge issue is that we modify the term "race" when talking about humans. Race in other contexts implies HUGE biological differences between two examples, for example orcs and elves in a fantasy series. In reality, all humans are part of ONE species - H. sapiens - so it's really not a surprise that "mixed-race" individuals can breed and produce viable offspring who themselves usually are fertile in adulthood. Biologically speaking, skin tone doesn't really tell us much of the rest of that person's genetics, it's literally superficial. We only use this term because it was established at a time when scientists only had their physical observational skills available to them and couldn't look at genetic similarities. They mistook skin tone for a racial quantifier, not realizing it's as distinguishing as eye color all things considered.
Edit: I had to change how to write the scientific name for humans, as Yahoo! recognizes H + omo (when written as one word) and replaces it as ****. The Greek root is used in both that name and homosexual, and because it's also used as a slur it's censored. H. sapiens is an acceptable way to write the species name in scientific literature, though, so that's something.
Edit #2: I had to change a point about wolfdogs since I mistakenly believed them to be sterile. They actually aren't. Thanks Zirp or pointing that out. I was fortunate to still have my notes from a class I took 6 years ago, where this knowledge comes from...and I think I misremembered the point my professor made. The notes clearly state that wolfdogs are fertile...but there can be anatomic barriers between some species of dogs to make certain crosses unobtainable (basically, chihuahuas are too small). Or, it could be the bold "do not breed" point he made, since it's considered cruel to do so for a variety of reasons.
-
Biff say: Your teacher should have explained that mules are sterile because horses and donkeys have different numbers of chromosomes. That doesn't apply to humans because we all have the same number of chromosomes regardless of skin color.
-
scott b say: Because race and species are two different things. Failure for you and your teacher.
-
frombrum say: And we wonder why your country is screwed
-
Sergio say: I’m guessing you went to Trump University. Look up the definition of “specie”
-
Gilgamesh King Of Hero's say: because you were a failed abortion
-
Alexandro say: Different dog breeds can mix. You can mix a chihuahua with a Great Dane, but it is NOT Advisable..
It will Probably have many Health Problems and come out Looking Ugly AF!!
But they are the same Race, nonetheless.
But if You Mix a Chihuahua With a Pug or a Weiner dog, They Come out VERY CUTE!
######## + ############ = ################
-
Susan say: I suspect a bit of trolling here. C'Mon folks, NO ONE is that stupid!
-
Ujima say: Blacks and Whites are the same species not different species. WTF???
Actually the genetic pool is even richer when you mix in diversity
-
Jimmy C say: White people are humans too.
-
GEORGE B say: Because they are the SAME species.
-