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Xenophytophilia is my favorite word in the English language
Dendrologists: [heavy breathing]
In all seriousness, isn’t it pretty unlikely that alien life could interbreed with terran life even if they also used DNA with the same bases?
It’s extremely unlikely that their DNA has the same translation semantics into proteins.
Not unless there is a common ancestor, which is theoretically possible. But yeah, extremely unlikely.
Wow. So I went looking if people actually knew when our codon system appeared.
Turns out that there are 26 slightly different systems on Earth right now, and there are good reasons to expect random alien life to have a system that looks like ours, but is different enough to not be compatible.
We won’t know until we try
Scientist 1: “How are things coming along with our test subjects?”
Scientist 2: “I don’t know, it’s about time to check back in with them.”
Scientist 2: “Hey, Mike? How’s it going?”
Mike: “Not too bad. There have been some challenges, but I think we got a few things worked out.”
Scientist 2: “Oh…my. was that it’s–”
Mike: “No, I don’t think so, but it seems like it was mutually enjoyable, though, so write that down.”
[Trilling noises in the background]
But think of the splinters… Oh god… Think of the splinters… Mike should get hazard pay
Bold of you to assume Mike isn’t paying for the privilege.
Incredibly. Even very closely related organisms can have a hard time breeding
I know I’m having a hard time breeding
Well it seems safe to say it’s at least as unlikely as a terran species being able to breed with some randomly selected other terran species.
What would happen if I crossbred with citrus? 🤔
I once had a short-lived romance with a Hanks Hard Lemonade
Doctors hate this one simple trick
If you like the idea of alien plant based fiction check out Semiosis by Sue Burke. Recommend going in blind
Some plant aliens land and discover the air itself gets them pregnant from all the pollen freely flying around from such numerous and primitive plant life. Terra is the plant equivalent of an unbridled sex planet.
I’ve got a relevant SMBC for that
Serious question: I know many oaks can crossbreed with each other, but do oaks actually crossbreed with non-oaks?
they can apparently even crossbreed with professors!
Plants don’t want to they just do. The human experience is wanting the freak, not being born into it.
