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The chicken was not a chicken even if the egg produced one.

A complementary dilemma respects the difference between canines (wolves & dogs) and vulpines (foxes). Canines have 78 chromosomes while vulpines have only 34. Following the science, I believe that vulpines have derived from canines after 24 fusions (where 2 chromosomes base pair become 1 base pair) and 2 fissions (where 1 becomes 2) ... if memory serves me right.

This means that the evolution of the vulpine from the canine involved many genetic mutations that did not result in sterility with respect to the population at large.

While this is possible (Petawalski's (sp?) horse with 68C and the domestic horse with 66C) it is not likely to always be the case (domestic horse with 66C and donkey with 64C are compatible ... but their offspring tend to be sterile).

The problem I see isn't one of evolution, but of population demographics. Canines, we are to believe, have been remarkably stable genetically while the vulpines––once they started on their merry way––need to have been genetically unstable enough to deliver fertile mutations like clockwork.

While that may be possible, the problem is that mutations tend to result in infertility or deformity and not healthy animals. So for each successful mutation that was able to sweep the whole proto-vulpine population there would have logically been others that resulted in localized population implosions ... and the speed of mutation would needs be increased as well.

Of course, in an isolated population group like the ones that give rise to pygmy animals one can easily see how mutations can accumulate without creating a diversity of species; however, as widespread as canines are the vulpines range even farther. They are the antithesis of an "isolated population group" which begs the question of why foxes are foxes even when they are from very different and widely separated population groups.

I've never got a satisfactory answer to that question.

Gotta laugh here. You got me! Cheers!

Splits and fusions within the realm of chromosomes though technically a sort of "mutation", do not require any gene mutations ~ which means that at the point where you started talking about "mutations" you steered right off the cliff into a pile of macacca.

We got on the chicken and the egg with my 11 year old granddaughter. She will no longer eat eggs...That led to teaching her what my grandfather taught me...candling.