eli5. When species are crossbred, do the offspring have a combination of both species? instincts? and if scientists were to splice together multiple species or edit DNA or create a species or something in a laboratory, would it have natural instincts? are the instincts coded into DNA?

Question

eli5. When species are crossbred, do the offspring have a combination of both species? instincts? and if scientists were to splice together multiple species or edit DNA or create a species or something in a laboratory, would it have natural instincts? are the instincts coded into DNA?

In: 1

Answer 1

There was a cross between a polar and a grizzly bear. A hunter killed it, they did DNA on it, it had more grizzly genes than polar genes. Her offspring from the mix (because polar and grizzly bears are similar genetically so have sterile offspring) all chose grizzly mates. They were also all killed, I think there were four generations? Before they were hunted to death.

Mules are a cross between male donkeys and female horses. They are sterile. Smarter than horses (donkeys are really smart) but they still have natural prey animal instincts which aren’t really that different between donkeys and horses.

I’m assuming that the bears have similar number of chromosomes and the horses/donkeys don’t. Mules and hinnys both have 63 chromosomes, a horse has 64, a donkey 62. Mules are male, hinnys are female (and also sterile). Generally the front of a mule or hinny looks like like the sire and the hind parts look like the dam (the female). It’s that chromosomal mismatch that makes the mules and hinny sterile.