>> The first chimeric experiment occurred many years ago when
>> scientists in Edinburgh fused a sheep and goat embryo - two
>> unrelated animal species that are incapable of mating and
>> producing a hybrid offspring. The resulting creature, called a
>> geep, was born with the head of a goat and the body of a sheep.>>
Does anyone do basic fact checking at the Guardian? The two species
are so 'unrelated' they are both usually referred to as closely related bovidae ruminants (same family, same order, both cloven-hoofed, cud-chewing, with four-part stomachs). And in 1985, it was a Cambridge geep, not Edinburth (that's 20 years ago, btw).
Anyway, the two species are so 'unrelated' that cross-breeding has happened in nature, despite the Cambridge University claims to have created the first chimera. This is a great time to debate the nature vs. nurture, since the Cambridge geep behaves like a sheep because he was raised by a sheep mother (though wonders if having ram testicles helps some):
http://www.biotechgov.org/news/5292
If you have doubts, about the importance of nurture, then see the results of an experiment with CROSS-FOSTERING of sheep and goats (obviously chosen because they are so similar but still distinct):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/172631.stm
And if you have doubts about spontaneous chimera (even though the sheep and the goat have different chromosome counts), see this article below. OTOH, the results also seem to make the nature vs. nurture controversy more complex (so apparently it seems possible that some criminal and sexually aberrant behaviour could be pre-determined in the genes, regardless of nurture, that is if sheep and goats provide a good analog to generalise about other mammals, including, of course, humans). The Botswana geep chimera was born of a goat doe, but he apparently has an unnaturally high libido, sexually mounts both sheep and goats, even when they are not in heat, and the couplings never resulted in any pregnancies (he was nicknamed the 'Rapist' and castrated for being a nuisance):
http://www.greenapple.com/~jorp/amzanim/cross08a.htm
And Rifkin gets paid to write his stuff!
F
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