Tutorial

Welcome to the HybriDatabase (HDB) at Bryan College's Center for Origins Research and Education (CORE). The HDB is an ongoing project to catalogue published references to interspecific hybrids (for example, lion x tiger = liger). Hybridization is useful data for studying ecology, speciation, and baraminology.

History. The HDB was first conceived in 1996 by Ashley Robinson, but due to lack of time, resources, and expertise, the project languished for four years. In the fall of 2000, Todd Wood revived the HDB for CORE, and preparations were made to gather hybridization information to put onto the new CORE web server. The HDB was presented to the public at the 2001 meeting of the Baraminology Study Group. Currently, we are seeking motivated volunteers to assist with the maintenance and curation of the HDB. If you are interest in helping out, contact us.

Searching the HDB. Currently, the database supports only two types of searching: genus or author. Simply enter the text you are searching for in the search box, select the field you would like searched (genus or author), then click search.

If your terms are found in the database, you will see a page that looks like this:

• Hyb # - The unique numerical identifier for each hybrid listed in the HDB.
• Species 1 and Species 2 are the two species involved in the cross. These fields are color-coded for quick skimming.
• Species 1 sex is listed if the direction of the cross is known, otherwise this field will be blank.
• Success of cross is adapted from the language of the publication without curator "judgment calls."
  IMPORTANT NOTE: Hybrid crosses that failed to produce offspring are also listed. Use the HDB with caution and discretion.
• Artificial/Natural is listed if known. Artificial hybrids are produced in a laboratory or artificial breeding program. Natural hybrids are observed in the wild (via introgression studies, for example).
• Reliability of Report is an evaluation of the quality of the report. This is most useful for Gray's Mammalian Hybrids and Bird Hybrids, where suspicious reports are indicated in Gray's comments.
• Reference is a link to the reference report, shown below.

Please remember that the HDB is a work in progress. Although our goal is to list all published hybrid reports, most organisms currently will not be listed at all. Bear with us as we continue to work on this important resource, or consider volunteering your time for data gathering or data entry. If you live near a large, public university, we could use your help in gathering references from the library. If you have a spreadsheet program (Excel or QuattroPro), you could assist in data entry. Contact us for more information.