THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS SPECIES:

Study: Catalina Bison Aren't Purebred (ALICIA CHANG, 9/21/07, AP)

Long thought to be purebred, the wild bison of Santa Catalina Island in fact have a little bit of cow in them, the first DNA analysis of the animals found. Nearly half of the 98 American bison shipped off the island in 2004 have cattle genes that were passed on through the mother. Catalina bison were believed to be purer than those on the mainland because they lived in isolation on the island since the 1920s.

"We were surprised because there's nothing cattle about them. They look like bison," said biologist Dennis Hedgecock of the University of Southern California, who co-authored the study.

They're totally different fat brown herd animals that stand around munching grass....

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 21, 2007 6:23 PM