Thought this week’s article could be of interest- an obscure report of a perfectly viable hybrid between two different avian families showing the potential to generate new species through wide crossing.
How can the principles of landracing and wide crossing be applied to animals?
Fascinating Shane!
Shame you’re not blessed with the seas of time you’d need to fullfill your great ideas.
So you’ve written a book, someone said in the comments. Is that so?
Chickens! My friend from Spain has been creating a landrace, they’re totally wild now he said.
The book is underway. I dont want it to be very long, so it should be ready to publish early next year at this rate. The working title is “Taming the Apocalypse”. The focus is on the potential for hands-on biotech and novel domestications to help transform humanity and the planet through the coming centuries.
There are some decent landrace type chicken breeds around, but most of the named breeds are pretty inbred and ruined by years of being pushed to extremes for winning shows or maximising profit in intensive input systems.
Chickens can interbreed with peacocks?!
Wow. I’d honestly like to see what that hybrid species would be.
I like your answer to “What is it good for?” And I have an even broader answer to add: “We don’t know yet.”
It may be fertile with a species we know the value of, as you mentioned. It may be symbiotic with (or a food source for) a criticially endangered species. (Such as dodos and dodo trees.) It may inspire a new biomimic technology.
Having no answer to “What is it good for?” is a sign of insufficient study, and nothing more.