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Mothers Giving Birth To Different Species

Oh, cool - I didn't know that. Like the man in orthopaedic shoes, I stand corrected. You learn something new everyday - and if you don't, perhaps you should consider a role in politics.
 
escargot said:
Yup, and there was also a theory that each human foetus went through every stage of human evolution during gestation, like temporarily having gills, webbed fingers etc.

Jerry and I must have read the same books!
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Yep, well. iirc, the similarities are really more on the structural context than in the morphological side of things. I mean, the embryos don't look that much alike, but they have similar estructures. As for the gills and stuff, I am not so sure, but I recall that the guy who proposed that theory exagerated the similarities between the embryos. But I also recall someone mentioning that snake phoetuses have tiny leg-like structures that eventually dissapear. So, my guess would be that the tru lies in between the two positions.
 
Onix said:
I also recall someone mentioning that snake phoetuses have tiny leg-like structures that eventually dissapear.
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They don't always disappear - some (if not all) constrictors actually have vestigial legs. The boa family certainly do, they just are tiny little atrophied things.
 
Agent Buffy said:
They don't always disappear - some (if not all) constrictors actually have vestigial legs. The boa family certainly do, they just are tiny little atrophied things.
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True. Same thing with some whales.
 
Really? How cool is that! You wouldn't want one of them standing on your foot :D
 
escargot said:
Yup, and there was also a theory that each human foetus went through every stage of human evolution during gestation, like temporarily having gills, webbed fingers etc.

Jerry and I must have read the same books!
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Its Ernst Haeckel's theory which is stated as "Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny" i.e. foetal development goes through stages which show a progression to higher life forms. It was demonstrated to be not only cobblers but faked although the definitive disproving only happened in the last 5-10 years and was published in a nature paper (1997 springs to mind - actually a quick check suggests it was 1998). I think it got mentioned in FT at the time as it is one fo the big scientific frauds.

Some links:

http://www.angelfire.com/mi/dinosaurs/ontogeny.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recapitulation_theory

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Steven Jay Gould did a great article on whale evolution (probably in his "Dinosaur in a Haystack" - I'll check when I find the book) and you can see the progression from what was probably a large cow like creature through a semi-aquatic stage to various proto-whales with vestigal legs. A lot of whales still have these legs but they are now just tiny bones.
 
IIRC, "Recapitulation" is what they called the theory that human embryos underwent all the evolutionary stages in the womb. A beautifully poetic theory, but not true.

And now it seems humans may not have evolved from "apes" after all, but might have started as deformed sheep whose mothers ate poison plants! ;)
 
Dog 'gives birth to kitten'

Dog 'gives birth to kitten'

A Cambodian man claims his pet dog has given birth to a kitten.

Hundreds of people have flocked to Te Huot's house after he claimed his 10-year-old pet Knou gave birth to a single grey kitten.

The owner said a forest monk who had visited him had told him that the dog had mated with a tiger.

Locals arrived at the home in Chhbar Ampou, a small village outside Phnom Penh, with incense to burn and donations for the dog and the tiny kitten.

Te Huot claims the birth is "a sign from the gods".

According to Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports he said: "This animal cries like a cat, and its face is like a cat, but its feet are bigger than a cat's and look more like a dog's feet."

An unnamed visitor was quoted as saying: "I only went to see what it looked like, but when the owner told me I had to pray to the dog, I left. I don't believe him that this kitten came from his dog."

It is the second time in the dog's life that she has given birth - she previously produced normal canine puppies.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1085276.html
 
shambles said:
...that is unfortunately over too soon...

taipei times
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I'll quote that as it is likely to disappear:

`Dog kitten' dies

The owner of a dog which he claimed had miraculously given birth to a kitten confirmed yesterday that the kitten had died four days after it was born. He denied reports that its canine mother had contributed to the death by biting the strange offspring. Owner Te Huot said the kitten died last Saturday of natural causes after he fed it a bowl of cow's milk, but that visitors and worshippers were still welcome since he had embalmed the creature and it was now on display in a jar of alcohol, taking pride of place atop a specially constructed shrine. He said the kitten's alleged mother, a ten-year-old bitch called Knou, was devastated by the "miracle kitten's" death.
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Longer report:

Kitten 'born to a dog' dies

September 02 2004 at 02:58PM

Phnom Penh - The Cambodian owner of a dog, which he claimed had miraculously given birth to a kitten, confirmed that the kitten had died four days after it was born.

He denied reports published in some local news-papers and sourced to his neighbours that its canine mother had contributed to the death by biting the strange offspring.

Owner Te Huot said the kitten died last Saturday of natural causes after he fed it a bowl of cow's milk, but that visitors and worshippers were still welcome since he had embalmed the creature and it was now on display in a jar of alcohol, taking pride of place atop a specially constructed shrine.

"I soaked it in a jar of alcohol because I am afraid otherwise it will smell. I burn incense and candles to the kitten every day. Please continue to visit," he said.

He said the kitten's alleged mother, a 10-year-old bitch called Knou, was devastated by the "miracle kitten's" death.

"Knou did not eat food for two days. She looked very sad," Te Huot said, denying the dog had lived up to the ancient tradition of animosity between the two species and had attempted to eat her young charge.

Te Huot said the kitten had attracted throngs of visitors and had earned around 100 000 riel (R166) in donations from curious worshippers.
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http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=126&art_id=vn20040902101619691C756821
 
i'm presuming this was a dog with facial deformities that made it look like a kitten (and presumably also killed it, as in cases like that large chunks of the brain are probably missing)?

DNA test would prove it if they did one, but i can't think of any other sensible explanation... unless some mad scientist was putting cat embryos into dogs for amusement value... :eek:
 
Goldstein said:
i'm presuming this was a dog with facial deformities that made it look like a kitten (and presumably also killed it, as in cases like that large chunks of the brain are probably missing)?

DNA test would prove it if they did one, but i can't think of any other sensible explanation... unless some mad scientist was putting cat embryos into dogs for amusement value... :eek:
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Well this might also be a motive:

Esoterrorist said:
nice little money making scheme...
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There don't seem to have been many witnesses to the birth - perhaps he just had an odd looking kittne lying around. Or perhap someone else did and swapped it for a puppy when he wasn't watching ;)
 
Personally, I think the owner killed the kitten (not necessarily intentionally). The article said that the kitten died after being fed a bowl of cow's milk, but four day old kittens really shouldn't be drinking that. They should be drinking milk from their mother, and if that is not possible, then some kind of kitten formula, but not cow's milk.
 
'Cept Fort reported on a cow giving birth to two lambs (and a calf), which is eerily similar to what's being reported here.

The story is told in the May 25th, 1889 edition of the Toronto Globe. A reporter was sent to the South Simcoe farm farm of John Carter and reported that the lambs that he had seen (supposedly the result of a romantic liason between one of the local rams and the cow in question -- the sexual dynamics of which escape me) were "larger and coarser than ordinary, or less romantically derived lambs, having upon their breasts tufts of hair like calves' hair." Apparently, stockbreeders who had examined the offspring (as reported by the Quebec Daily Mercury had "examined the lambs, and were compelled to accept the story of their origin."

Of course, all of this occurs at a time when newspapers weren't exactly adverse to stretching the truth a bit to sell an extra paper or two, but, honestly, who knows? The myth of the cabbit was supposed to be the result of a cat and rabbit mating (again, don't ask me how) but whose true origins can ultimately be traced to feline spina bifida.

Even stranger are squittens -- yup, you guessed it: the results of cats and squirrels "gettin' it on". Radial hypoplasia is usually posited to explain this hybrid but, in this instance, the definition seems lacking.

And what about the very real Liger and Tigon (the hybridization of a lion and tiger, the nomination depending on which animal is the mother and which is the father), the wolphin (killer whale and dolphin -- only one of these creatures is known to exist), zorse (zebra and horse, which FT covered sometime back), etc.?

I'm not suggesting that a dog actually bred with a cat but nature (as any fortean knows) can be a strange mistress at times and, honestly, has anyone ever tried to breed a cat and dog together? Do we know for sure? :)

What's curious about the report is the kitten's relatively quick death -- what one would naturally expect of a genetically deformed hybrid. Certainly, the farmer would have made more money if the 'wonder kitten' were still alive and available for public showings (and pettings)?

Just stirring the pot a little...:)

Polterdog.
 
A sheep-like goat!

Thursday, March 16, 2006 10:21:28 am


JAIPUR: Veterinary experts have been puzzled by the birth in a Rajasthan village of a lamb that bears similarity to a sheep [goat surely?], according to media reports.

The lamb, which looks like a goat but also has wool like a sheep, has been attracting crowds in Rampura Jhaladi village of Nagore district, about 400 km from Jaipur.

Scientists in the state too have evinced interest in the creature.

"Blood samples of the lamb have been sent to the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resource at Karnal for DNA tests," said a government veterinary doctor.

The findings of these tests could help scientists to develop a similar breed of goats that could be reared for wool.

Preliminary investigations suggested the newborn was the outcome of the mating of a goat and a sheep, the vet said.

Villagers, meanwhile, were bewildered by the appearance of the unusual animal.

"This is an unnatural incident and anything that is unnatural can only spell trouble," Ram Prasad Chaudhary, a 73-year-old farmer of Rampura Jhaladi, was quoted as saying in a media report.
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... 450482.cms
 
Mar 13, 2006 3:47 pm US/Eastern

Cat Gives Birth To Mouse-Like Kitten?


(CBS4 News) TUNISIA A cat in Tunisia has given birth to something strange.

According to the owner of the cat, the litter included 5 regular kittens, and one that more resembles a mouse.

The owner says the nose, mouth and ears look like that of a mouse, but the rest of the body is that of a cat.

The mother cat doesn't seem to notice or mind. She's nursing and taking care of it, just like the kittens.

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(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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View the video:
http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_072154828.html
 
It looks so much like a mouse that maybe it IS a mouse. Could there be a mix up? Or will it grow up into a cat-sized mouse?
 
I know, how stupid do they think people are?! A mouse like head with the body of a kitten, yeah right, if I were blind maybe... :roll:
 
Reminds me of the Blackadder episode where Nursey is discussing Queen Elizabeth's birth. Everyone was amazed when a boy was born with no "winkle", until Sir Thomas More pointed out that a boy without a winkle is, in fact, a girl.

I may be doing the Tunisian cat-owners a disservice, but a kitten which looks like an adult rodent could - shock horror - could just
be a rodent, after all.

Good story, though!
 
It says that it has a cat's body and a mouse's head. It looks to me like it has a mouse's head and a mouse's body. It seems to me that a mouse just crawled in with the cats. Unless she has video of the cat giving birth to that mouse I'm gonna have to call BS on this one.
 
I didn't see the mother cat interacting with the mousecat at all in the video. Maybe I just missed it and there was something, please tell me if this is the case, but it looked like lots of footage of the mousecat, lots of footage of the mother cat – some including the mother cat interacting with the 'normal' kittens – and some footage of the mousecat placed with the other kittens, who were ignoring it, but seeing as they're so young that's not necessarily strange. If this were true they should be able to get some of the mother cat feeding the mousecat or something.
 
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