We see in wildlife mules, ligers and tigons as example of genetic dead end offspring as their parents were genetically too distinct
At the same time offspring from genetically too similar parents : siblings cousins etc produces an offspring with bad genes
What is the goldilocks zone genetically that is considered just right? Is it the same or different among species?
In: 3
There isn’t a “goldilocks zone.” Speciation isn’t really well defined. A good example is ring species. I’m going to simplify the following but it’s the general idea. There are rabbits that live in Canada that can breed with the rabbits in the US. The US rabbits can breed with rabbits in Mexico. However the Canada rabbits and Mexico rabbits can’t breed.
Essentially the “sweet spot” is simply “does this pairing result in children who can have children.” It’s all our genes care about.
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