experimenting with cross-breeding

[Randy or Deb Carey <carey@spacestar.net>]

Darren J. Hanson wrote:

> > Dr. Watters started a long and painstaking
> > process of cross breeding, research and writing a description for
> > publication.
> I'm kind of curious....If people are so set on keeping their species
> pure, the hobbyist, what is the purpose of Romer's and Dr. Watters cross
> breeding species?

In the ACA talk on Madagascar fishes, Loiselle discussed a particular Madagascar
cichlid that mated with a similar looking cichlid from India.  I don't remember
if eggs were produced from this mating, but if so, no fry resulted.

Loiselle used this experiment to marvel at an apparrent fact:  Despite it being
perhaps 100 million years since India split off from Madagascar, the drift of
speciation between these two species was low enough that the two responded to
each other's spawning signals.  Of course the drift was too great for producing
viable fry.

So such experiments (attempting to breed two different species) can contribute
information regarding evolutionary lineage.  Contributing information can come in
various levels: pair responds to pre-spawning signals, pair spawns, eggs develop,
fry survive, fry goes on to reproduce.  The lineage that can be supported by such
information is very important in contemporary ichthyological descriptions
(phylogeny).

--Randy


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