November 17, 2006: Ordinary folks visit dolphins

The official cap:

A Pacific white-sided dolphin approaches visitors wearing 'Seawalkers' in a salt water tank at Enoshima Aquarium in Fujisawa, southwest of Tokyo. By using the underwater equipment, even inexperienced divers can submerge themselves in 3-meter-deep water to get up close and personal with the dolphins.

Apparently they get to punch them, if you believe the photo. No, this is a fine idea, I'm all in favor of it. Get up close and personal with 'em!



Now, in a rare double Friday IotD, this news item is going around. I didn't want to make it a lone IotD.

This (xoB/WaPo) shot is allegedly of a cat who was impregnated by a dog and has now had dog-like kittens. People are investigating the claim, but I am already willing to put any amount of money on the side that this is a hoax.

Sometimes the news people just enjoy putting out a totally crap story without any kind of basis. Or maybe the news folks don't understand it either. Biology ensures that there is no way that a dog and cat can successfully bring about a litter of puttens (or kippies).

I may get things wrong from time to time - and I always need your help to figure out where I have blown it - so this is a chance to say, no effing way, people, think about it for a moment.

I just had the greatest idea! I'll make pot-bellied elephants!


Really though, this would have been a great IotD to feature the Wolphin that was recently born :)

...and then there was the dolphin with vestigal rear fins recently caught off Japan.

Undertoad wrote:

Biology ensures that there is no way that a dog and cat can successfully bring about a litter of puttens (or kippies).

I may get things wrong from time to time - and I always need your help to figure out where I have blown it - so this is a chance to say, no effing way, people, think about it for a moment.

I'm gonna say you are absolutely 100% right. They are too far from being on the same evolutionary branch. No brainer.

barefoot serpent wrote:

...and then there was the dolphin with vestigal rear fins recently caught off Japan.

Well, whales have vestigial knee joints, which makes you wonder why God went to such lengths to trick scientists.

I may get things wrong from time to time - and I always need your help to figure out where I have blown it - so this is a chance to say, no effing way, people, think about it for a moment.

I'm gonna say you are absolutely 100% right. They are too far from being on the same evolutionary branch. No brainer.

Oh yeah? Well, you just tell that to my pet Fluffy McFido. Sheesh

If people are making new animals, can I have miniature amphibious pigs please?

I could have a bowl of them on my desk at work - like terrapins. When I'm bored I can race them, and when I'm hungry I can microwave them and eat them whole. Mmmmmmmmm, crunch the little pig-snacks.....

[COLOR="Silver"]If anyone actually creates these I get royalties, right?[/COLOR]

Sundae Girl wrote:

If people are making new animals, can I have miniature amphibious pigs please?

I could have a bowl of them on my desk at work - like terrapins. When I'm bored I can race them, and when I'm hungry I can microwave them and eat them whole. Mmmmmmmmm, crunch the little pig-snacks.....

[COLOR="Silver"]If anyone actually creates these I get royalties, right?[/COLOR]

:p

Apparently, UT has never heard of CatDog.


(this would have been funnier if I only knew how to make a link to an actual picture of the cartoon character CatDog. On Nickelodean.)

Brianna wrote:

Apparently, UT has never heard of CatDog.


(this would have been funnier if I only knew how to make a link to an actual picture of the cartoon character CatDog. On Nickelodean.)

How does cat dog pooh? :whofart:

I agree, this is biologically impossible. I was a biology major (now a doctor) and this just doesn't happen. The closest to interspecies breeding is the horse & donkey making a mule. But even the horse & donkey are closer phenotypically than, say, a bull mastiff and chihuahua (which makes you wonder if donkeys are really not a distinct species but rather the chihuahuas of horses!).

As for the "vestigial" things, I am constantly amazed at things that seem to be holdovers from a more primitive stage of evolution but are later found to have a purpose after all (though admittedly difficult to determine empirically). The appendix (main center of vitamin K synthesis) and tonsils (regional immune defense and offering some protection against gastroenteritis), for example, in our own bodies. My take is that God did create all species, but he used similar motifs in the design of each species. We do the same thing when we design things--look at how similar general computer design is (no matter the application or time when it was designed), or for another example, things powered by internal combustion engines (cars, airplanes, motorcycles). They all have a similar plan but different variations given the individual application. Just a thought and not intended to preach...

I know too much about dolphins to think of them a cute. Ladies, watch yourself while swimming in the Mediterranean, whew.

So....what would the dolphins do to a 'Lady' in the Mediterranean? Maybe make a new species? Humaphin?

They try. Sometimes succeed in their attempt at trying, without consent.
They also rape their own.
One of the few animals that practice war & kill for fun.

cjjulie wrote:

How does cat dog pooh? :whofart:

What do you think makes them so mean? :D

Undertoad wrote:

...This (xoB/WaPo) shot is allegedly of a cat who was impregnated by a dog and has now had dog-like kittens. People are investigating the claim, but I am already willing to put any amount of money on the side that this is a hoax....

Hmm. Poor kitty looks like she's been beat up...! I think this is just another one of those inter-species nursing sessions that we've all seen before. Cute idea, but dang that cat took it hard from something! :greenface

Dolphins are at least as 'human' as chimps are, just a bit of a different shape.

They also regularly take gay partners for life, which totally wins my respect from them.

i've always thought of foxes as cat/dog crosses. they have the traits of both.

I think cats and dogs are impossible to breed together because they have dramatically different numbers of chromosomes. Cats have 19 pairs, while dogs have 39 pairs. As a point of contrast, humans have 23 pairs. If you can't pair up the chromosomes in some way, there's no way for a zygote to form.

From wikipedia:

Viable hybrids between species are possible regardless of chromosome number differences provided the gene combination in the hybrid allows for embryonic development to birth. Large differences in chromosome number, however, would make hybrid bitches so poorly fertile as to be essentially sterile. Male hybrids would be sterile due to a phenomenon called Haldane's Rule. The lack of genetically verified fox/dog hybrids indicates that viable embryos are not formed.)

Ibram wrote:

Dolphins are at least as 'human' as chimps are, just a bit of a different shape.

They also regularly take gay partners for life, which totally wins my respect from them.

Chimps will suddenly turn on a baby of the troop, batter it, pull it limb from limb and eat it. Grim, but it is nature.

lumberjim wrote:

i've always thought of foxes as cat/dog crosses. they have the traits of both.

I though foxes were a cheerleader/model hybrid.

Oh, you meant....furry......4 legged.....[SIZE="1"]nevermind[/SIZE] :bolt:

Sundae Girl wrote:

Chimps will suddenly turn on a baby of the troop, batter it, pull it limb from limb and eat it. Grim, but it is nature.

Like I said, pretty human...

Blood tests debunk cat-puppy claim

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's cat-puppy mystery has been solved.

Blood tests refute a Brazilian woman's claim that her cat had given birth to three puppies, geneticist Adil Pacheco said Tuesday.

Cassia Aparecida de Souza, 18, from a poor neighborhood of Passo Fundo in southern Brazil, said last Friday that her cat Mimi had given birth to the three puppies as well as three kittens, which did not survive.

"People who aren't experts often imagine things," said Pacheco, director of the Institute of Biological Sciences of the University of Passo Fundo. "All the facts contradict her."

Pacheco, who was asked by a local newspaper to conduct a chromosome test to check the spectacular claim which gained wide media attention, said mammals sometimes nursed the young from another species.

But... which are they?

Are they cats or dogs?

I'm gonna assume dogs.

"People who aren't experts often imagine things," said Pacheco, director of the Institute of Biological Sciences of the University of Passo Fundo. "All the facts contradict her."

Yeah, more like:

"People who eat peyote often imagine things," said Pacheco, director of the Institute of Biological Sciences of the University of Passo Fundo. "All the facts contradict her."

"People who aren't experts often imagine things," said Pacheco, director of the Institute of Biological Sciences of the University of Passo Fundo. "All the facts contradict her."

Yeah, but these critters aren't imagined, they're real! They had to come from SOMEwhere.

So no, she's not dumb, just a fraud.

Sigh.

A stray could have had a litter on her property, and then been run over when foraging, and her pet could have "adopted" them.

But fraud is more likely.