Maybe. I'm not in a position to say. I found it interesting and thought provoking. If dna from different groups of animals can mix then it will alter both the physical form and behavior of those animals. It will create new species.
Just as an example, if say dna from a lizard or reptile jumped into a primate, that would be the same as an ape mating with a lizard and the genomes of both being permanantly combined. Maybe that is how humans came about ( not saying it is just hypothetically speaking) But either way not one part of darwins theory of evoloution explores or even considers this. So its not a matter of him being a little wrong to start with, more he was never right at all. Where darwins theory says an animal adapts over time to become what it is now with the abilities to survive in its present habitat, this says that animals (some at least) changed not over time but very quickly and by a virus of some description at a time when the world was changing rapidly. Almost like it happened because of how the world was going to be and not how it was. So did all the mammal species that became extinct at that time really die out? Or change into something which we do not relate them to in order to cope with a different earth?
If so, then that begs another question.
The Mayan believe there will be earth changes in 2012 that we are to change with it. If its true that an airborn virus or parasite caused a dna shift because of different dna structures in the virus. Then could that really happen now? swine flu?, bird flu?plenty of different dna in those two that does get into humans. Basing these thoughts on the articles, history and present happenings. It would appear that it is not out of the question of possibility. Indeed it borders on probability that it will happen at some point.
In the article posted(not rocket science) this caught my eye
But Pace has some ideas on those fronts; he suggests that the Space Invaders may have infiltrated the genomes of vertebrates by stowing away aboard certain viruses. There is precedent for that - last year, scientists discovered a piece of DNA that hitched a ride from the genome of a carpet viper into that of a gerbil, by hitching a ride onboard a poxvirus that infected both species. And four of the species that harbour SPINs - bats, opossums, mice and rats - are rich reservoirs of poxviruses that could act as vehicles for mobile DNA
So just last year they found that a gerbils dna was part gerbil part viper. This is taken from the article about the gebil and viper .
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19526125.000-snake-dna-found-inside-a-gerbil.html
The DNA is unlikely to incorporate into the gerbil genome, as gerbils do not carry the required genetic pasting mechanism, Piskurek says. The mechanism is found in some hoofed mammals, and the SINE could pass into the genomes of these animals if the taterapox virus jumps species again. "This is new," Piskurek says. "It can definitely be a method of retroposon transfer between phylogenetically unrelated species."
So according to this then some hoofed animals can indeed fully take up the DNA of the other animal. Most mythological creatures were based on a hoofed animal. According to the article it is indeed possible. Scientists are actually creating animal/human hybrids as we speak, incuding mythological creatures.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0125_050125_chimeras.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/apr/02/medicalresearch.ethicsofscience
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1156069,00.html
