A geep is a chimera produced by combining the embryos of a goat and a sheep; the resulting animal has cells of both sheep and goat origin. A geep should not be confused with a sheep-goat hybrid, which can result when a goat mates with a sheep. In zoology, a chimera is an animal which has two or more different populations of cells, which are genetically distinct and which originated in different zygotes (fertilized eggs). ... Embryos (and one tadpole) of the wrinkled frog (Rana rugosa). ... This article is about goats, the animals. ... Species See text. ... Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria (coral, jellyfish, anenomes) Placozoa (trichoplax) Subregnum Bilateria (bilateral symmetry) Acoelomorpha (basal) Orthonectida (parasitic to flatworms, echinoderms, etc. ... A cell is a single unit or compartment, enclosed by a border or wall. ... Species See text. ... In biology, hybrid has three meanings. ...

The first geep to be created artificially under laboratory conditions was born in 1987. Researchers fused a sheep embryo with a goat embryo. The resulting creature was a mosaic of mismatched goat and sheep parts. Those parts which grew from the sheep embryo were woolly. Those which grew from the goat embryo were hairy. In a chimera, each set of cells keeps their own species identity instead of being intermediate in type between the parental species. A chimera such as the geep may be fertile, but it will pass on the genes for either goats or for sheep depending on whether its reproductive (organs) system were formed from the goat embryo or from the sheep embryo. 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Wool in a shearing shed Long and short hair wool at the South Central Family Farm Research Center in Boonesville, AR Wool sheep, Royal Melbourne Show Wool is the fibre derived from the hair of animals of the Caprinae family, principally sheep and goats, but the hair of other mammals... Hair is also a musical: see Hair (musical) and Hair (movie) Hair is the filamentous outgrowth of the epidermis found in mammals. ... Fertile may be used in the following conrtext: Fertility, a term used to describe the ability of people or animals to produce healthy offspring. ...

The term shoat is sometimes erroneously used for sheep-goat hybrids and chimeras. The term shoat actually means a young piglet.

Some material used with permission from www.messybeast.com.

External links

Found mostly on the Island of Crete, Greece.

• Photograph of a geep (at the bottom of this page)
• Discussion of hybrid mammals at messybeast.com