Re: Horse common ancestor
Todd A. Farmerie (taf2@po.CWRU.Edu)
17 Oct 1995 00:09:17 GMT
In a previous article, dtyler@ednet1.osl.or.gov (donald e. tyler) says:
>With the donkey with 62 chromosomes,
>the Mongolian wild horse with 66,
>modern horse with 64, andn 3 species
>of zebras with 32, 44, and 46, are
don't forget the other species of ass.
>there any ideas as to the number
>of chromosomes the common ancestor
>had?
I don't recall seeing any such speculation. The best way to address the
question is to look at the next closest relative, but in this case the
rhino and tapur are too far removed for such an inquiry to be productive.
That leaves only speculation, and I am not sure that the information is of
a level of significance worth the waste of time involved in such a pursuit.
>Or are we allowed to question
>basic premises here?
Considering the mongolian horse and the domestic horse, with different
chromosome numbers, can cross-breed to produce fertile offspring, I am not
sure what basic premise would be brought into question, whatever the
original number of chromosomes was.
Todd
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