![]() In dispermic chimeras, two eggs that have been fertilized by two sperm fuse together, producing a so-called tetragametic individual-an individual originating from four gametes, or sex cells. (For information on the phenomenon in plants, see chimera.) Included among the different known types of animal chimeras are dispermic and twin chimeras, microchimeras, and parthenogenetic and androgenetic chimeras. Chimeras are distinguished from mosaics, organisms that contain genetically different populations of cells originating from a single zygote, and from hybrids, organisms containing genetically identical populations of cells originating from a cross of two different species. The term is derived from the Chimera of Greek mythology, a fire-breathing monster that was part lion, part goat, and part dragon.
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