Can two different species have viable offspring?

Broadly speaking, different species are unable to interbreed and produce healthy, fertile offspring due to barriers called mechanisms of reproductive isolation. These barriers can be split into two categories based on when they act: prezygotic and postzygotic.

Is breeding between species possible?

For example, humans are one species and dogs are another species. Individuals of the same species can reproduce to make more individuals of the same species. Two individuals belonging to different species cannot normally reproduce together. If they do, their offspring is often infertile and unable to reproduce.

What happens when two species interbreed?

When two different species successfully mate, the resulting offspring is called a hybrid. Such encounters can affect the conservation and evolution of a species. When two different species successfully mate, the resulting offspring is called a hybrid. Hybrids are often, but not always, sterile (think of mules).

Are hybrids fertile?

Ligers are fertile and can mate with other ligers, lions, or tigers. Fertile hybrids create a very complex problem in science, because this breaks a rule from the Biological Species Concept—that two separate species should not be able to breed and have fertile offspring.

Can species breed if they are not closely related?

Temporal isolation can result in species that are physically similar and may even live in the same habitat, but if their breeding schedules do not overlap then interbreeding will never occur.

How does one species become two?

The evolutionary process of speciation is how one population of a species changes over time to the point where that population is distinct and can no longer interbreed with the “parent” population. Often a physical boundary divides the species into two (or more) populations and keeps them from interbreeding.

Can two animals in the same genus interbreed?

Generally, and more often than not, two different species within the same genus can interbreed. And very often those hybrid offspring are fertile. There are some notable exceptions which, because the animals are well-known, are often cited as the rule rather than the exception, such as mules.

Can all interspecies pairings produce fertile offspring?

We all seem to generalise from this and assume that no interspecies pairings can produce fertile offspring. This is not just a piece of folk science. The biologist Ernst Mayr proposed in 1942 that a species is a population of organisms that can all interbreed with each other, and which either cannot or do not interbreed with anything else.

Why can’t two species breed with two different directions?

Different species may have different genes that are active in development; therefore, it may not be possible to develop a viable offspring with two different sets of directions. Thus, even though hybridization may take place, the two species still remain separate.

Can two populations of the same species have different carrying capacity?

In fact, two populations of the same species can be apart any distance or time, and if they can still interbreed they are considered the same species even if they look completely different. Note that carrying capacity refers to the maximum number of individuals in a population that the natural resources of the surrounding environment can support.