Japan's Unique Cow/Whale Hybrid Experiments

RemyBR writes "Controversial scientific research happens all the time, but a review conducted by scientists in Japan uncovered a list of 'bizarre' trials - including one program designed to crossbreed cows with whales.'Scientists have analyzed 43 research papers produced by Japan over 18 years, finding most were useless or esoteric. The scientific research included injecting minke whale sperm into cows eggs, and attempts to produce test-tube whale babies.'"

Re:Love It or Hate It?

[flyingsquid]

It's not quite as bizarre as it sounds, actually. Whales are ungulates like cows, actually part of the even-toed ungulate group (artiodactyls) that includes cows, goats, deer, etc. So whales are actually closer to cows than horses are. The paleontologists thought the molecular biologists were on crack when they published those results, but eventually they dug up early whales with ankle joints which are remarkably similar to those of cows and other ungulates, and the artiodactyl-whale hypothesis has now been embraced.

So it's not completely bizarre, just... mostly bizarre. Yes, whales are artiodactyls, but they're pretty damn highly modified ones: no hindlimbs, nostrils that open on top of the skull, lots of extra finger bones. Even if you got a sperm to successfully fertilize an egg, I can't imagine that the cowhale/whalecow embryo would survive for long when the developmental patterns of the parents are so different. And what would that tell you? Whale/cow love ain't likely to work out? Shit, I could've told you THAT without an experiment. I gotta agree with the critics: this doesn't strike me as serious scientific research. I have a very hard time believing that you could write up a grant proposal for this experiment and get a favorable review.

Re:Love It or Hate It?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cows and whales aren't as far off as you might think - the closest order to cetacea is the even-toed ungulates, which include cows. So they're practically cousins. (Well, in the same sense that, I believe, the closest order to primates is rodents...) So it's not like they picked two species at random - they probably picked a whale and then its closest living land-dwelling species that was easily available. (I believe hippos are more closely related to cetaceans than cows, but it's probably quite a bit harder to find a hippo to experiment on, whereas cows are a dime a dozen.)

Re:Hardly unique

[Quiet_Desperation]

Dammit!

Re:This sounds like a twisted subplot to an anime.

[popeye44]

Well according to that one vid I seen it was eels up the wazoo.. but then again they put all sorts of things IN ..

Re:Love It or Hate It?

[Sciros]

Japan isn't the only country in the world that still hunts whales. Norway, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, even the US (Alaskan natives) engages in it. Norway I think brings in more whales than even Japan, though reportedly they use more humane killing methods (or at least are better at using the same ones).

But yeah, the research that was looked at was indeed part of the "research" that the whaling industry sort of conducts in order to keep doing the whole song and dance so they can say they whale for scientific research. Most of it, though, is of course research that they claim involves "lethal sampling" (that way they can say they kill the whale in the name of science, rather than in the name of, um, selling to a high-end restaurant chain or something).

Re:female whales = cows Clones, not Hybrids

[Culture20]

Mod Parent up. This seems much less weird when you think of it in these terms. They're just doing "normal" test-tube babies. Not with Bovine, but with whale+whale.

Cetartiodactyla

[tepples]

WTF? A cow is order Artiodactyla, and a whale is order Cetacea. Their DNA would be miles apart.

More like furlongs apart, if this comment [slashdot.org], this wikipedia article [wikipedia.org], and the Wikipedia article's references are to be believed.

Re:Small problem

[grassy_knoll]

Ahem.

Nobody EATS IT!

I did when I lived in Japan.

Some was for sale at my local supermarket. As sashimi it wasn't very good, but boiled it tasted rather like very tender beef ( with an odd rainbow hue from the fats ). Delicious. My neighbors liked it as well.

While it may not be a staple food, and perhaps the reason for the continued whale hunting is mostly cultural, people in Japan do ( or at least did ) eat whale meat.

Um...

[mrfantasy]

I think we may have an immense misunderstanding here.

I think a female whale is in fact referred to as a "cow".

Therefore, these experiments are likely whale IVF. Which is still weird, but considerably less so. The real story is Japan's flimsy excuse to do "research" that allows them to continue whaling.

In other words, nothing to see here, move along.

Re:Small problem

[moogleii]

I did, too, and it wasn't very good. And yeah, it had an odd color to it, too, though mine wasn't rainbow, more like very dark, like it had been stained in some kind of sauce (it hadn't been).

When he means "nobody", don't take it literally. But dolphin and whale consumption have dropped considerably. At this point, high consumption is limited to the villages where the actual hunting occurs.