So if you artificially impregnated an animal with a human zygote...

[NuclearNed]

After watching "Children of Men", I got to thinking about possible ways that mankind might be able to keep reproducing in the circumstances presented in the film.

Lets assume that the artificial impregnation actually worked (i.e., the zygote didn't get rejected, and it attached to the wall of the uterus, where it began to grow).

Would the result of the pregnancy be a human, an animal, or something in-between?

Lets say that the zygote was placed in either a very large or a very small animal (elephant or chihuahua). Would the baby be proportionally sized to the mother? In the case of the elephant, the gestation time would be considerably longer (~2 years?) - how would this affect the baby?

 

[Heisenberg]

As long as the zygote came from humans the baby would be human.

 

[NuclearNed]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
As long as the zygote came from humans the baby would be human.

Actually, thats what I assumed. Would the baby look human though?

 

[nakedfrog]

There's hormones and such that come into play when the fetus is in the womb, I wouldn't know what kind of variance there would be for the surrogate animal's hormone levels, but it would probably have an effect.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

In the case of surrogate pregnancies, the zygote doesn't inherit any characteristics from the surrogate (host) body, right? So by that logic, the resultant baby should be as human as...err...human.

However, an entirely different species does complicate things. Like you said, would the baby have the normal human 9 month gestation period? I am going to go with, "It goes against the way God intended so strange sh!t will happen and the baby will be a freak."

 

[JulesMaximus]

Unpossible.

 

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by: NuclearNed

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
As long as the zygote came from humans the baby would be human.

Actually, thats what I assumed. Would the baby look human though?

I'm not a biologist, but if you're assuming that there's a way to provide the fetus with all the nutrients/hormones a human mother would, then I see no reason it wouldn't develop like any other baby. If those weren't provided properly then you'd have birth defects or it wouldn't even survive.

 

[bennylong]

They did a show on this on Discovery Channel and they said it would have the characteristic of a man/animal.

There was a rumor for many years a walking chimp was fathered by a human in Africa.

 

[Ameesh]

suspending the fact that the zygote wouldnt take in the first place, youd probably miscarry after that, if you suspend belief on that then you would end up with a race of superhumans who have the powers of the animals they came from but look just like us.

 

[NuclearNed]

Originally posted by: bennylong
They did a show on this on Discovery Channel and they said it would have the characteristic of a man/animal.

There was a rumor for many years a walking chimp was fathered by a human in Africa.

When you wrote "man/animal", did you mean that it would have characteristics of both?

 

[Queasy]

Did you ever see the movie BeastMaster? It would be like that...exactly. Complete with a topless Tanya Roberts.

 

[bennylong]

Originally posted by: NuclearNed

Originally posted by: bennylong
They did a show on this on Discovery Channel and they said it would have the characteristic of a man/animal.

There was a rumor for many years a walking chimp was fathered by a human in Africa.

When you wrote "man/animal", did you mean that it would have characteristics of both?

Yes, take a look for yourself. Oliver for many year was thought to be fathered by an African male. DNA tests later show that Oliver was not human, and it was just another media stunt by da man to keep da bruthas down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_the_chimpanzee