Geep
From Free net encyclopedia
A geep 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.
The first geep to be created artificially under laboratory conditions was born in 1987. 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. In a chimera, each set of cells (germ lines) keeps their own species identity instead of being intermediate in type between the parental species. The geep therefore has 4 parents, while a sheep-goat hybrid has 2 parents.
A chimera such as the geep may be fertile, but it will pass on the genes for either goats or for sheep 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.
Some material used with permission from www.messybeast.com.
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Found mostly on the Island of Crete, Greece.