History Main / RandomSpeciesOffspring

* Subverted, but discussed in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve" wherein [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick adopt a clam. Some onlookers not knowing that [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick simply adopted the clam and are just wearing wife and husband clothes, question how a sponge and a starfish could produce a clam offspring.

Compare HollywoodGenetics. Contrast AllGenesAreCodominant and PatchworkKids, wherein offspring possess, respectively, abilities and physical attributes that are basically an extreme combination of both parents. Also see EitherOrOffspring, where the offspring of a different-species couple inherit one of the parents' species, and DominantSpeciesGenes, where offspring always inherit ''the same'' parent's species.

However... in certain works, the species of the child doesn't seem to have anything to do with the species of the parents whatsoever. This is most likely to occur in video games, works aimed towards a younger audience or basically any work where humor/symbolism/weirdness is favored over logic, but there are exceptions.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'':

* The three brothers of ''WesternAnimation/{{Catscratch}}'' look nothing alike: Mr. Blik is a black cat, Gordon is white and orange and Waffle is grey.

* In the short story "Literature/ItsAGoodLife" Anthony's parents are normal humans but Anthony is some kind of undescribed monster. (In the adaptation on ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' he looks normal, so that's not an example.)

* WebAnimation/OverlySarcasticProductions: One ''Miscellaneous Myths'' episode notes that Myth/ClassicalMythology often does this with its monsters. Why do Typhon and Echidna, two SnakePeople, have offspring that include multi-headed dogs and the leonine/goatish Chimaera? Who knows! Then again, this is a lead-in to talking about the Minotaur, whose origin is [[BestialityIsDepraved closer to what you'd expect]].

If InterspeciesRomance is ''very'' common in the setting, it can be {{handwave}}d with latent genes. If Alice the Aardvark and Bob the Bobcat both have a wolf grandparent, it ''kind of'' makes sense that their child would be more wolf than anything else, even if neither of them have noticable lupine traits ... right?

** In the ComicBook/SpiderHam universe, Quicksilver is a duck and his sister, Scarlet Witch, is a dog. Their father ([[{{Retcon}} at least at the time]]) Magneto is either a mosquito or a horse.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'', Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper are, respectively, talking salt and pepper shakers. Their children are Paprika, a spice container, and Cinnamon, a cinnamon shaker. This goes further in the reboot ''WesternAnimation/BluesCluesAndYou'', wherein the couple have new twins - Sage and Ginger, miniature color-coded[[note]]Mint green for Sage and light brown for Ginger[[/note]] corked bottles.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': The vast majority of {{mons}} play by GenderEqualsBreed and eggs are the same species as the mother. ... but then there's Manaphy. Manaphy is a OneGenderRace, and like other such mons, it can't breed with another Manaphy, only with Ditto. ''Unlike'' other one-gender races, the result is not another Manaphy, but Phione, which looks quite similar to Manaphy but never evolves.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': The original version of SCP-166 was a humanoid with abilities similar to a succubus. Her mother was a nature goddess. Her father is Dr. Clef, a man with a MultipleChoiceBackstory, who may or may not be entirely human, and has claimed to be the devil. This is no longer the case in the rewritten version, where her parents are the same but she takes after her mother instead.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': SCP-166 is a humanoid with abilities similar to a succubus. Her mother was a nature goddess. Her father is Dr. Clef, a man with a MultipleChoiceBackstory, who may or may not be entirely human, and has claimed to be the devil.

* Garfield Thelonius Remmington III in ''Videogame/{{Arcanum}}'' comes from pure human stock, but by some freak accident of birth he was born with an appearance indistinguishable from an orc. He makes his living working as a freakshow attraction, "Gar the World's Smartest Orc", impressing visitors with his knowledge of politics, mathematics and [[SpotOfTea tea]].

* In the short story "Literature/ItsAGoodLife" Anthony's parents are normal humans but Anthony is some kind of undescribed monster. (In the adaptation on ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' he looks normal, so that's not an example.)

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': In the ''World of Remnant'' mini-series, it's revealed that if two [[LittleBitBeastly Faunus]] of different animal types mate, their offspring's animal type will be a complete roll of the dice. By comparison, same-type Faunus-Faunus couples always produce a same-type Faunus, while Faunus-Human couples produce either Human offspring or a Faunus of the same type as the Faunus parent.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': In supplementary materials, it's revealed that if two [[LittleBitBeastly Faunus]] of different kinds mate, their offspring would be this. By comparison, Faunus-Faunus couples of the same species will always produce a Faunus whose traits are inherited from the Faunus parent. And a Faunus-human couple will produce either a human or a Faunus whose traits are inherited from the Faunus parent.

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* The main family of the TV series ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'' is a hodgepodge of dinosaur species yet they are all related by blood. Earl and Frances Sinclair are respectively a Megalosaurus and an Allosaurus with some Dilophosaurus features. Their two eldest children, Robbie and Charlene, are a Hypsilophodon and Protoceratops, respectively. Their third child Baby is supposed to be a Megalosaurus as stated by Earl, though in the episode "Out of the Frying Pan" he is depicted as a Ceratosaurus as an adult in Fran's ImagineSpot. As a sidenote also, Frances' mother, the elderly Ethyl Phillips, is an Edmontonia.
[[/folder]]

** Pegasus and his brother Chrysaor, who is sometimes depicted as either a giant or a winged boar, are the sons of the gorgon Medusa and the god Poseidon. The two of them were birthed when their mother was decapitated. Additionally, Chrysaor sired the three-headed Geryon with the naiad Callirrhoe.
** In ''Literature/TheOdyssey,'' Odysseus meets Polyphemos, a {{Cyclops}} son of Poseidon. So Poseidon hooked up with a lady Cyclops? No; Polyphemos' mom was a sea-nymph named Thoosa, who may have looked like a mermaid. For some reason their kid was just giant and one-eyed.

'''Tigress:''' ''([[DeadpanSnarker no change of tone or expression whatsoever]]('' ...That must have been quite a shock.\\

''[Po nods]''\\

''[Po nods again]''\\
'''Tigress:''' ''[[[DeadpanSnarker no change of tone or expression whatsoever]]]'' ...That must have been quite a shock.\\
'''Po:''' ''Sheelishy realizing the obvious'' ...Yeah.

** The offspring of a half-Outsider (extraplanar being + mortal) and a mortal is called a [[UnevenHybrid Planetouched]]. There are about two dozen known types depending on the exact combination of parents.

* WebAnimation/OverlySarcasticProductions: One ''Miscellaneous Myths'' episode notes that Myth/ClasicalMythology often does this with its monsters. Why do Typhon and Echidna, two SnakePeople, have offspring that include multi-headed dogs and the leonine/goatish Chimaera? Who knows! Then again, this is a lead-in to talking about the Minotaur, whose origin is [[BestialityIsDepraved closer to what you'd expect]].

* Myth/NorseMythology:
** Both the Fenris Wolf and the Midgård Serpent are the offspring of Loki and female giant Angerboda.
** Loki's children also include Sleipnir, an eight-legged horse (with a stallion, Loki having shapeshifted into a mare).

** The offspring of the monstrous Typhon and Echidna are probably the best known creatures of this trope. To name a few, there is the three-headed dog Cerberus, the multi-headed Hydra, the Nemean Lion, the Erymantean Boar, the Chimera and many others.

** In ''Literature/TheOdyssey,'' Odysseus meets Polyphemos, a {{Cyclops}} son of Poseidon. So Poseidon hooked up with a Cyclops? No; Polyphemos' mom was a sea-nymph named Thoosa, who may have looked like a mermaid. For some reason their kid was just giant and one-eyed.
* Myth/EgyptianMythology has Osiris's family to note. Osiris's grandfather (or great grandfather depending on sources) Ra was a God that was depicted as a number of things. The most usual and famous is a hawk-headed man but others include a ram-headed man, a full ram, a beetle, a phoenix, and a serpent to name a few. Osiris's birth parents were Geb and Nut, the Earth God and Sky Goddess respectively. In some interpretations, Geb is depicted with the head of a snake or a goose, while Nut is depicted likewise in some interpretations as a cow. Osiris is overall human in appearance but his brother Set has the head of an desert animal which some speculate to be an aardvark. Osiris's son by his wife Isis is the falcon-headed Horus. In some interpretations, the dog-headed Anubis is also Osiris' son.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** On the other side of the portal, [[AllThereInTheManual and only on the supplementary Twitter]], humans Catherine and Greg have a daughter who's a bear cub. [[spoiler: Again, this is because Catherine originated from Domain, leading to her daughter becoming a FunnyAnimal. Oddly though, her animal DNA seems to come from her ''father'': Catherine was a vulture, while Greg's counterpart in Domain is a bear.]]

* In ''Website/{{Neopets}}'', some families in site events will all be the same species of pet, but others will have each individual as a different species. "Skeith[[note]]An obese and [[ExtremeOmnivore highly omnivorous]] Western dragon[[/note]] plus Zafara[[note]]A kangaroo/puppy creature with spines on its back like an iguana[[/note]] = Ixi[[note]]A ''goat/deer'' species[[/note]]" is a common joke among the fandom due to the revelation of the heritage of [[EnsembleDarkhorse Sophie the Swamp Witch]] during the "Tale of Woe" arc. Whether the different-species children are implied to be HappilyAdopted or produced organically [[DependingOnTheWriter Depends On The Writer]]. It's also possible for some family members to start out as one species [[AWizardDidIt but then change to another]], since there are several ways that magic/technology can transform pets into other species, including ones which players can use on their own pets (such as potions).

* Mr. and Mrs. Cake from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' are two Earth Ponies, but their children are a Pegasus and a Unicorn. According to Mr. Cake, they're like that because they inherited traits from distant Pegasus and Unicorn relatives from both sides of the family... [[ChocolateBaby though he seems a little uncertain in saying so.]] And one of those relatives is only related by ''marriage,'' not by blood.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow,'' [[TalkingAnimal Tim the Bear]]'s parents were actually a black bear and a kangaroo, even though he displays no particular kangaroo qualities. This is pretty much just mentioned for a gag.
* Subverted, but discussed in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve" wherein [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick adopt a clam. Some onlookers not knowing that [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick simply adopted the clam and are just wearing wife and husband clothes, question how a sponge and a starfish can produce a clam offspring.
** Ambiguous example: Mr. Krabs, [[SpeciesSurname a crab]], has a daughter, Pearl, who is a whale. The show has never revealed how this happened, though of course there are [[InterspeciesRomance other]] [[InterspeciesAdoption possibilities]].
** Then in the episode "Rule of Dumb" we find out that Gary's (a sea snail) father is a sea slug
* On ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'', this is combined with LamarckWasRight. Dr. Hutchison, a female cat, marries Filburt, a male turtle, and [[WhaleEgg lays an egg]]. Heffer, a steer, sits on the egg for Filburt. The result is [[GenderEqualsBreed two male turtles, one female cat]], and a male steer.

* The Imperial Family in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness'' includes a pig (Mei Li), a water buffalo (Lu Kang) and geese (Zu Chanhua and her son Zan). No further information has been offered.
* In the original ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'', Professor Heinz Squawkencluck was a mole and Dr Augustus P. Crumhorn III was a wolf. In TheRemake, there's a Professor Squawkencluck who's a chicken (and specifically stated in [[AllThereInTheManual the background material]] to be Heinz's niece) and Augustus P. Crumhorn IV, who's a doberman (and has a daughter who's a poodle).

* In ''WesternAnimation/YinYangYo'', a dragon named Edna manages to have two insects for sons; a cockroach named Carl and an ant named Herman. [[spoiler: And in the finale Master Yo, a panda, turns out to be Yin and Yang's father despite their being rabbits.]]

* In supplementary materials of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', it's revealed that if two [[LittleBitBeastly Faunus]] of different kinds mate, their offspring would be this. By comparison, Faunus-Faunus couples of the same species Will alway produce a Faunus whose traits are inherited from the Faunus parent. And a Faunus-Human couples will produce either a Human or a Faunus whose traits are inherited from the Faunus parent.