--- Bryon Daly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > >Donkeys are the sterile offspring of horses and > asses. They are hybrids. > > Correction: Mules are the sterile offspring of > horses and donkeys. > (ass == donkey). Specifically, breeding a male > donkey and a female > horse results in a mule, while the opposite > apparently results in a > more horse-like "hinny". At least according to this > site: > http://www.imh.org/imh/bw/mule.html > > To me, that last point is pretty interesting. I > wonder what would cause > those differences between a mule and a hinny, when I > would expect that > they would have pretty much equivalent DNA? Could > the pregnancy > environment account for the difference?
While I'm guessing here, I think the cellular "engines" might account for some differences, as mitochondria essentially all come from the mother (AFAIK the contribution of mitochondria from sperm are so rare as to be basically nil). Another difference might be from the behavior of the mother - foals clearly are influenced by the temperament of their dam (or surrogate dam, in the case of orphaned foals), and horses do tend to interact differently than donkeys. The site you posted notes unusual color patterns in spotted mules -- one of the cutest little molly mules I ever saw had a nearly calico coat (brown, white, roan), and was super-friendly to boot. Fiddling With Tradition Maru ;) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
