I can has mongoose?

[Carwash]

...and what would you plug it into?

Presumably your time-machine would have an internal power source you could use. (It would be a bit of a crappy time-machine if it had to run off the mains. How would you get back home from any time before the 20th century, for a start?)

If were a DeLorean I'm sure you could adapt the microwave plug to run off the cigarette lighter.

 

[Arch]

I thought there might be some scientific evidence that proves it's impossible, but I don't think "if it could happen it would have by now" is it.

Well there is, if you would only accept that it's not possible for animals with certain numbers of chromosomes to reproduce:

"Donkeys and wild equids have different numbers of chromosomes. A donkey has 62 chromosomes; the zebra has between 44 and 62 (depending on species). In spite of this difference, viable hybrids are possible provided the gene combination in the hybrid allows for embryonic development to birth. A hybrid has a number of chromosomes somewhere in between. The chromosome difference makes female hybrids poorly fertile and male hybrids sterile due to a phenomenon called Haldane's Rule."

(wikipedia)

So females are unlikely to be fertile and males are infertile, so you can't have a zonkey/zonkey union that works. You might just get a female zonkey and a horse or donkey to work, but the result of that union will be a) very rarely viable and not a zonkey. It would be a zonkeyorse, or a ho-zonkey or something. And still not a species.

 

[Arch]

Presumably your time-machine would have an internal power source you could use. (It would be a bit of a crappy time-machine if it had to run off the mains. How would you get back home from any time before the 20th century, for a start?)
If were a DeLorean I'm sure you could adapt the microwave plug to run off the cigarette lighter.

duh... A very long extension cable....

 

[bonj2]

Well there is, if you would only accept that it's not possible for animals with certain numbers of chromosomes to reproduce:

"Donkeys and wild equids have different numbers of chromosomes. A donkey has 62 chromosomes; the zebra has between 44 and 62 (depending on species). In spite of this difference, viable hybrids are possible provided the gene combination in the hybrid allows for embryonic development to birth. A hybrid has a number of chromosomes somewhere in between. The chromosome difference makes female hybrids poorly fertile and male hybrids sterile due to a phenomenon called Haldane's Rule."

So how many chromosomes has a zonkey got? It presumably must have some number in between 44 and 62. So just let's say it's got 56. Why is 44 ok, 62 is ok, but 56 isn't?

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Bonj - Whilst I'm sure the zoological world is grateful that you have brought your intellectual powers to bear on the issue of zonkeys, you seem to be under the delusion that no one else has given these creatures any study or even thought, beyond considering them freaky curiosities.

However they were studied and bred extensively during the early years of African colonisation due to the problems of imported horses suffering from trypanosomiases. It was thought, looking at the herds of flourishing zebra that perhaps they were immune to infection and therefore cross breading with what was assumed to be merely a stripy horse would be the first step in producing a disease resistant, hard working draft animal which would play a key role in 'developing' the dark continent.

But both the infertility issues and the fact that wild animals are not immune to the ravages of the tsetse fly, led to this thinking being a false hope. But I'm sure if the British East Africa Agricultural Research Stations records ever become available online, you will find that considerable effort, using large numbers of animals, went to proving this idea was a non starter. After that zonkeys continued as novelties pulling the traps of plantation owners and some were brought back with returning colonial officials here in retirement.

The military would also have taken an interest in zonkeys in the same way they have done in mules. IIRC Maggie Thatcher was responsible for closing the Army mule research facility and breeding program in Cyprus just in time for them to be sorely missed in the Falklands campaign.

So I suspect their economic and military potential resulted in more being known about zonkeys than perhaps you are aware.

 

[Fnaar]

See definition 3 of Zonkey here, for an alternative.

 

[Arch]

So how many chromosomes has a zonkey got? It presumably must have some number in between 44 and 62. So just let's say it's got 56. Why is 44 ok, 62 is ok, but 56 isn't?

It's not just numbers. The chromosomes will be of different sizes and shapes and won't be able to pair up in subsequent matings.

This site has a lot of stuff on equine hybrids:

http://www.messybeast.com/genetics/hybrid-equines.htm

including the fact that Colchester Zoo set out to breed zeedonks in the hope of producing a disease resistant equine for work in Africa and that they hoped the animals would be fertile. The lack of any offspring in that case suggests that they did try to mate zeedonks/zonkeys, and failed to produce offspring. I wonder if the one they say is still there (would have been 2005) is still alive now....

It also quotes a Roman saying: "cum mula peperit," meaning "when a mule foals" - the equivalent of "when hell freezes over.", demonstrating how rare a succesful mule pregnancy (with a horse) was. The Romans used a lot of mules, and even had special stables for breeding them, with ramps for the donkey sires to be able to reach the horse mares...

 

[Arch]

Oh, and while I researched, Tim beat me to it...

 

[Fnaar]

It also quotes a Roman saying: "cum mula peperit," /QUOTE]
I'm sure I've seen that as an instruction in a Nigella recipe somewhere....

 

[TheDoctor]

**gross oversimplification alert**

It's not as simple as 44 is OK, 62 is OK, 56 isn't. The problem is more to do with the way information is encoded onto these chromosomes.
F'rinstance, with people there's a certain place where eye colour information is stored. You got some genetic data from your dad, some from your mum, and the combination governs what colour eyes you got. Because your parents were the same species, this data was in the same place on the chromosomes you got from each parent, so you could combine it and it all worked.
Now imagine a hybrid. The information governing eye colour isn't necessarily in the same place, and so you might end up combining your dad's eye colour data with your mums curly hair data, and trying to get your eye colour from this mismatch. Throw in the fact that there's a different number of chromosomes from each parent (in the case of zonkeys) and mismatches are a dead cert. Get an egg or sperm cell from this mismatch and combine it with another sex cell, and you get even more mismatches, and that almost always stops the embryo developing.

I'm sure a geneticist could explain that better. And faster too, it would seem.

 

[Arch]

**gross oversimplification alert**

It's not as simple as 44 is OK, 62 is OK, 56 isn't. The problem is more to do with the way information is encoded onto these chromosomes.
F'rinstance, with people there's a certain place where eye colour information is stored. You got some genetic data from your dad, some from your mum, and the combination governs what colour eyes you got. Because your parents were the same species, this data was in the same place on the chromosomes you got from each parent, so you could combine it and it all worked.
Now imagine a hybrid. The information governing eye colour isn't necessarily in the same place, and so you might end up combining your dad's eye colour data with your mums curly hair data, and trying to get your eye colour from this mismatch. Throw in the fact that there's a different number of chromosomes from each parent (in the case of zonkeys) and mismatches are a dead cert. Get an egg or sperm cell from this mismatch and combine it with another sex cell, and you get even more mismatches, and that almost always stops the embryo developing.

I'm sure a geneticist could explain that better. And faster too, it would seem.

No, that's great. I'm imagining bonj with curly eyes and blue hair now.

 

[Fnaar]

...Because your parents were the same species...

that's some assumption...

The information governing eye colour isn't necessarily in the same place, and so you might end up combining your dad's eye colour data with your mums curly hair data

That explains my curly eyes and blue hair!

 

[TheDoctor]

No, that's great. I'm imagining bonj with curly eyes and blue hair now.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.[/The Fly]

 

[TheDoctor]

that's some assumption...

Not sure I want to accuse anyones parent of beastiality. Oh, I dunno though, it's not like anyone knows where I live.

 

[Tetedelacourse]

So what colour hair would a zonj have?