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Author Topic: Biologist/geneticist question.  (Read 2199 times)

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Offline Quasirodent

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Biologist/geneticist question.
« on: November 02, 2013, 10:01:49 pm »
Does anyone know (or know how to find out) if corvids and sturnids can crossbreed?  Someone I know insists she has a crow/mynah cross.  Both birds are passerine, and both have 80 chromosomes.  So it might be possible, but how likely is it?
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Offline Random Gal

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2013, 06:29:56 am »
I've yet to hear of animals from different families interbreeding.

Then again, the whole ranking system is completely arbitrary to begin with.
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Offline SpaceProg

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2013, 02:04:48 pm »
There are cases where families of birds (and a lot of other critters, really.  Take the mountain lion, for instance) are misplaced by science and will eventually end up being moved as more genetic info is found about them.  I really don't know about a crow and a mynah though...

I guess if it turned out that they were close enough to be able to produce an offspring, the offspring would still be sterile.  Tell that person you know to try to get a pic or maybe, if she can draw,  make a sketch of the bird?
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Offline mellenORL

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2013, 02:29:08 pm »
Well, since both crows and mynas are from the order Passeriformes, perhaps a sterile hybrid is very slightly possible, since they do have the same number of chromosomes? If so, that's kinda creepy, when you consider that humans and great apes share the order primates, but not the same chromo count...and yet there was a storm of interwebs panic when a German researcher was (mis)quoted as saying he wanted a human female to host an in vitro ape/human hybrid embryo a few years back.  Most likely, either the "crow" or the "myna" parent was misidentified. Don't wanna come off like a bird racist, but they all sorta look alike :P.
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Offline SpaceProg

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #4 on: November 03, 2013, 04:10:51 pm »
Mynahs have a little flap of bright colored skin on their heads that crows don't. :p
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Offline Feral Dog

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #5 on: November 03, 2013, 09:53:10 pm »
I don't think so- interfamilial hybrids are extremely rare.
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Offline Random Gal

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #6 on: November 04, 2013, 02:42:19 am »
Again, taxonomic ranks aren't some set-in-stone aspect of nature, just an arbitrary system people have imposed on it. Ex: Aves, Dromaeosauridae, and Troodontidae are about equally closely related to one another, yet the former is a class whereas the others are families within "Class Reptilia".
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Offline Old Viking

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #7 on: November 04, 2013, 03:16:03 pm »
Scientists recently succeeded in crossing a tiger with a parrot.  They don't know what to call the result, but when it speaks, you listen!
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Offline Quasirodent

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2013, 01:32:52 am »
She has some photos of the bird.  To me, it looks like a carrion crow/other corvid hybrid with some long curly feathers around the neck, and its body is a dark grey-blue.  I can't see anything specifically mynah-like about it.  Apparently the breeder who sold it to her has crows (unknown species) and mynahs, and this odd-looking bird was produced somehow.   I think it's more likely to just be a genetic fluke in a bird that is all corvid.  Like an extra chromosome or something that causes odd feathering.
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Offline SpaceProg

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2013, 05:39:11 am »
Post some pix plox.  I am curious about this bird.  Corvid or not.
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Offline Quasirodent

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2013, 03:07:20 pm »
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Offline mellenORL

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2013, 04:18:03 pm »
Yah, Scare Crow nyuk-nyuk-nyuk  :P

Cute bird.
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Offline SpaceProg

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2013, 05:16:09 pm »
Quote from: Quasirodent on November 07, 2013, 03:07:20 pm
Just one that shows any detail.

https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/q71/s720x720/1378362_10152034712759973_827834386_n.jpg


Mmmn... Yeah, it looks Corvid-ish, but I wish the pic showed the neck feathers.  Sometimes ravens have fluffier feathers around their neck, but mostly toward the front.  The bill's not quite right for a raven though...  I'ma gonna have a goosey in my bird book tonight.
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Offline Quasirodent

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #13 on: November 08, 2013, 12:13:45 pm »
I couldn't find any other good pictures, I'm not sure what happened, they might have been removed because they were a couple months old.  I believe the feathers are kind of long and wavy around the throat and breast.  The bill resembles that of a carrion crow.  And hybridization with a hooded crow could make the body a lighter shade than the head.
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Offline SpaceProg

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Re: Biologist/geneticist question.
« Reply #14 on: November 08, 2013, 06:15:29 pm »
It could be a funky Hooded Crow, or a hybrid of one.   I can't find anything that really matches it exactly, but like people, there are oddballs in the bird world too.  Hoff's fixing to get a quirky blue (instead of the normal green) Princess Parrot, for instance.
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