I’ve found myself favouriting several similar posts from the “Dropping The Science” RSS feed lately, with no clear idea about what I was going to do with them. So here they are, in all their weird and wonderful glory, for your viewing pleasure!
The laws of evolution have a very strange sense of humour…
What in the world is that last thing?
You left out Venus!:
http://sciblogs.co.nz/bioblog/2012/09/06/more-on-mosaics/
There’s better shots of her around on-line if you hunt for them. Stunning face, eh?
Alyssa, apparently it’s a blue dragon sea slug and not, as I had first assumed, something from Pixar’s latest movie. Isn’t it awesome?!
Grant, squeeeeeee! (A friend of a friend was looking for a new owner for her similar-looking cat a few years ago. The cat’s name was Picatso, which I thought was excellent)
That is very cool!! And that cat is awesome!
I think the second down, the bird is a gynandromorph
There is also the famous half-cooked lobster: http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/2/4/3/92243_v1.jpg
Elizabeth, I believe you’re right – half male half female. Cell division is so cool!
Nico, that looks semi-delicious!
Damn, those pics are cool.
Okay, just looked at the Venus cat pictures. It’s quite striking if X-linked inactivation just happened to results in that precise coloration.
And although I understand little about it, I think the phenomenon of X-linked inactivation is fascinating. Every now and I then I like to reflect on how we females are ALL genetic mosaics!
we have a complexity that men just wouldn’t understand đ
I would counter that there is increasing evidence that all of us have tissues that are mosaic đ
e.g. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/10/01/1213736109.abstract
(But then a guy would – ?)
“The laws of evolution have a very strange sense of humour”. This is true Cath a look at this!:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50003408@N08/8056421029/
Heh!