If evolution is true why can't anything reproduce outside of its own species?

Question

If evolution is true why can't anything reproduce outside of its own species?

Answer 1

Evolutionary changes result from mutation, not hybridization, for the most part.

Answer 2

Have you ever heard of a mule? Its a cross between a female horse and a male donkey. Last I checked horses and donkeys are different species.

Answer 3

OF COURSE!!! DONT U WATCH POKEMON??!! OMG. DUH!!!! Pikachu evolved to RichU!!! its a fact.. god..

Answer 4

hey guys, stop thinking of science, and be reasonable...because its been over a thousand years, and we still can't reproduce with monkeys....or anything outside of our species...neither can other species...

Answer 5

Interesting point. When a new species evolves, it does so relatively gradually. [There were biologists who thought that the change was abrupt; google Schmalhausen and Steven J . Gould.] While the gradual change is going on, the reproduction can go on with the parent species. It is not until the new forms become distinct enough that they can be considered a new species.

Actually, there are minnows in the wild that can and do reproduce with others that are not only in different species but in different genera. The offspring are interfertile not only with each other but also with the parent species. It is less common, but there are reports of different species of bears interbreeding in the wild. Taxonomy of bears is thoroughly fouled up anyway and has been for a century or so. The interbreeding just adds fuel to the fire

Answer 6

That is, in a sense, what defines a species -- that which can reproduce together. You see lots of dogs and birds interbreeding. Remember that evolution generally happens over a long time period. But dogs are a perfect example of evolution. About 10,000 years ago, most dogs were pretty much the same. In 5,000 generations or so, we have a huge diversity in dogs, from tiny toy dogs to massive ones. Even in my life time, they have bred -- granted with the help of science -- even smaller and smaller dogs.

Here is a scientific definition of a species from the American Heritage Dictionary:

A fundamental category of taxonomic classification, ranking below a genus or subgenus and consisting of related organisms capable of interbreeding.

Oddball cross-breeding like mules are not sustainable as a species. They are called Filial 1 Hybrids, meaning they are a one generation hybrid that dies off when it dies.

Differences in dogs, for instance, are both a hybridization and mutation.

Answer 7

is this your way to prove god?

Answer 8

I think the answer to your question is that over the 5 billion years of evolution both the plant & animal worlds branched out much like the limbs of a tree & therefore each limb evolved seperatly from the other limbs even though  they originated from the same branch. I think that people who can't understand evolution fail to grasp this one concept & that is the length of time involved. The Earth is about 6 Billion years old & a LOT can happen in that amount of time especially compared to the mere 6000 years that are sometimes literaly accepted from Genises in the Bible.. 6 Billion years is a long, long time. Plenty of time for all life to branch out & become so specialized that they are different enough from each other that they cannot interbreed. Anyway, these are my thoughts about the very interesting question that you asked. Thomas

Answer 9

because that is bestiality

Answer 10

Uhm, i am pretty sure thats what evolution is... its the summation of thousands of years. It's not like one day you have a chicken and the next day its an eagle. Its a very slow and gradual process that involves reproduction and inheritance of traits.

Answer 11

That's kind of the definition of a species: a branch of the evolutionary tree that diverged enough to be a different enough critter to not be able to interbreed with another "branch" of the same tree.

A few actually are similar enough -- haven't diverged quiiiiiite enough -- to interbreed, though different enough that it's usually not very successful. For example, donkeys and horses can interbreed to produce mules, but mules are always sterile.

Answer 12

because evolution is about the mutation of one species by the change of its environment not the possibility of one specie to reproduce with another

Answer 13

Many animals can reproduce outside their own species. Surely you've heard of a mule? That's the offspring of a male donkey and female horse - two different species. Lions and tigers can interbreed to produce ligers (lion father and tiger mother) and tigons (tiger father and lion mother). There are many examples - wolf-dog hybrids, coyote-dog hybrids (coydogs), leopard-lion hybrids (leopons), jaguar-leopard hybrids (jaguleps), domestic cat-leopard cat hybrids (Bengal cats), whale-dolphin hybrids (wholphins), zebra-donkey hybrids (zeedonks), camel-llama hybrids (camas), etc., etc. Generally, animals within the same genus can breed, and sometimes inter-genus matings between animals in the same family can prodcue offspring.

However, most hybrids are sterile due to their parents having different numbers of chromosomes. Evolution is not the result of hybridization - two animals mate and a new species is born. It is the result of millions of years of natural selection - that is certain traits, which are the result of natural variations among individuals in a population, proving more condusive to the survival of those individuals, which then pass these on to their offspring. This is what's known as survival of the fittest. Over millions of years, these traits become the norm, and the animals have become a different species to their ancestors.

I will give you a greatly simplified example. Let's say there is a population of animals, some of whom have slightly longer fur than others. Gradually the climate changes, becoming colder. The individuals with longer fur are better able to withstand the falling temperatures - they survive, whilst the short-coated individuals die. The long-furred individuals breed with each other, producing long-furred young. The entire species is now long-haired.

Answer 14

"A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring."

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

As others have noted, the real factor in the development of new species is time. As a species changes over time its genetic makeup changes. Eventually it may not be close enough to the original species to interbreed. Of course that is a simplified explanation, and there are several mechanisms for speciation. See here:

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