Sheep-goat chimera
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[Photo] An example of a sheep-goat chimera. By Dr. Gary B. Anderson of UC Davis. Released under the GFDL with the additional stipulation that the subject not be called a geep.
A sheep-goat chimera (sometimes called a geep in popular media) is a chimera produced by combining the embryos of a goat and a sheep; the resulting animal has cells of both sheep and goat origin. A geep should not be confused with a sheep-goat hybrid, which can result when a goat mates with a sheep.
History
The first sheep-goat chimera was bred in Manumbar QLD Australia; it was created artificially under laboratory conditions was born in 1984, while the first instance created in the U.S. was in 1985 at the University of California, Davis. Researchers fused a sheep embryo with a goat embryo. The resulting creature was a mosaic of mismatched goat and sheep parts. Those parts which grew from the sheep embryo were woolly. Those which grew from the goat embryo were hairy.
Characteristics
In a chimera, each set of cells (germ lines) keeps their own species identity instead of being intermediate in type between the parental species. It has four parents, whereas a hybrid has two parents.
A sheep-goat chimera may be fertile, but it will pass on either sheep or goat genes, depending on whether its reproductive (organs) system were formed from the goat embryo or from the sheep embryo (i.e., which germ-line formed the ovaries or testes).
The term shoat is sometimes erroneously used for sheep-goat hybrids and chimeras. The term shoat actually means a young piglet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep-goat_chimera
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