The status of hybrids is complicated by the fact that hybridization can
create new species.  This doesn't work well in mammals or birds, but
does occur in most groups of animals (including mollusks) and seems
common in plants.

This happens when a hybrid is unable to reproduce with the parent
lineages but can reproduce, either asexually or sexually with another
hybrid.  Molluscan examples include almost all freshwater corbiculids,
many sphaeriids, most Lasaea, and many thiariids.  These hybrids are
commonly polyploid.  Such hybrids in practice generally are treated
nomenclaturally as good species, in contrast to something like a mule.

Of course, the way you define a species is an issue here, too.


----------------------------------------
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama, Box 870345
Tuscaloosa AL 35487
"James gave the huffle of a snail in
danger But no one heard him at all"  A.
A. Milne

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