equine species

From: Karin Goihl & Daniel Fahey <goihlk_at_zedat.fu-berlin.de>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 23:09:45 +0200

>There is a second species of horse - the horse which is
>genetically distinct (see www.horsenet.org/przewalski.htm). It's a
>real world example of breeds in one species having a greater variation
>in appearance than between different species.

Yes. The usual horse has (I think) around 46 chromosomes while the Przewalski has 66. As for other equines, there are two species of ass and three zebras. Someone was thinking lately that the Quagga may have been a sub species of one of these zebras, but if not then it was another equine, making eight all told in recent times. You can cross all of these but the offspring of mixes will be infertile.

Daniel

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