tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209921721314660731.post4098522472950061348..comments2024-03-10T19:39:07.469+00:00Comments on Synapsida: The Hybrids are ComingJK Revellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00358838350092883422noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209921721314660731.post-3519720213386453612019-03-09T18:16:58.482+00:002019-03-09T18:16:58.482+00:00One claim I have read (somewhere, can't rememb...One claim I have read (somewhere, can't remember where) is that this concern with species purity is the last hoary remnant of nineteenth-century notions of "racial purity." Hybrids of any sort were supposed to be bad because they must be less viable than the pure species (and yes, this reasoning was applied to different groupings of humans). Today, science has moved beyond this, but there's a lingering belief that we must preserve species purity in wildlife at all costs.<br /><br />I'm not saying that keeping wild species from completely losing their identity from interbreeding is a *bad* thing, but sometimes we make a fetish of it. Then we may let a population become extinct rather than compromise its "purity", as almost happened with the Florida panther.Maureen Lycaonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12173546099968610862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4209921721314660731.post-80837392823553914862019-02-06T13:02:36.510+00:002019-02-06T13:02:36.510+00:00It's interesting to me we've chosen to go ...It's interesting to me we've chosen to go with the 'all hybrids are 100% bad approach'. Considering the genetic bottlenecks we're seeing all over the world hybridization may become an important tool to save species on the brink.<br /><br />Asiatic cheetahs are the most obvious example along with most other big cats. As humans cut off the natural corridors animals used in the past small isolated populations will invariably face extinction. We don't know how successfully a population of 50 cheetahs for instance can sustain itself long term. Saving the genetic variation is probably more important then conserving the uniqueness that may be an artifact of recent genetic isolation.<br /><br />I noticed biologists have found coyotes on Galveston Island in Texas that carry red wolf genes that are different from the existing population of red wolves. There's talk of somehow 'breeding back' the genes into the existing, heavily inbred population. Which is ironic considering how close the wild population of wolves is to becoming extinct a second time.kmichaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05430854438111260663noreply@blogger.com