Re: Tiktaalik, Great Danes and speciation

["T. Michael Keesey" <keesey@gmail.com>]

On Mon, 10 Apr 2006, Botterweg, Rrp wrote:
> There is at least one well-documented case of a female Dachshund mating
> with a male St. Bernard (could not have been the other way around ;-)),
> which is almost as extreme as a Great dane with a Chihuahua.

Not really. Great Danes are about the same size as St. Bernards, but a
Dachshund is 16 to 32 lbs. to a Chihuahua's 2 to 6 lbs. So a Chihuahua
is about 6% to 38% the size of a Dachshund (average 22%).

Still impressive, but I think it's safe to say the smallest and
largest _Canis lupus familiaris_ are reproductively isolated from each
other. (You could probably artificially inseminate a Great Dane bitch
with Chihuahua sperm, but that's cheating.)
--
Mike Keesey
The Dinosauricon: http://dino.lm.com
Parry & Carney: http://parryandcarney.com