The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Foobar on May 14, 2013, 05:28:44 pm

Title: Black or white? or both ...
Post by: Foobar on May 14, 2013, 05:28:44 pm
I'm sure some folks might have seen this already, but sharing it anyway for any who haven't, just cos it's cute :)


http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/meet-battenburg---black-and-3406261 (http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/meet-battenburg---black-and-3406261)


Not something you can deliberately achieve alas, as it's a chimera.
Title: Re: Black or white? or both ...
Post by: Fleecewife on May 14, 2013, 06:21:44 pm
That is an unusual marking - and dead cute too  :sheep:
 
So what's the mechanism for producing a chimera - apart from scientists swapping foetal cells around?
Title: Re: Black or white? or both ...
Post by: Bionic on May 14, 2013, 06:36:57 pm
awww, he is lovely  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Black or white? or both ...
Post by: Blinkers on May 14, 2013, 10:27:51 pm
I like that  ;D :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Black or white? or both ...
Post by: Eastling on May 14, 2013, 10:32:32 pm
Very cute what a great story

Title: Re: Black or white? or both ...
Post by: Pedwardine on May 15, 2013, 12:26:00 am
Fingers crossed there's a good loving home. Wonder if he's still intacto  ;D
Title: Re: Black or white? or both ...
Post by: sh3ph3rd on May 18, 2013, 01:52:02 pm
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So what's the mechanism for producing a chimera - apart from scientists swapping foetal cells around?

It occurs naturally too. It's the fusing of two (or more) fertilized eggs. It occurs in humans, too, which is where we get people with different colored eyes, and how people can actually have children that aren't theirs, so while they did produce them physically, the DNA in the children came from a parent's fraternal twin that fused with them in-vitro, so they will test negative for a maternity or paternity test. It's also one way we get intersexed and hermaphroditic humans and other animals.  ;D

I'd look suspiciously at those with three-color-hair types, too, though I'm not sure about that one being for-sure chimeraic... Ever seen a man with a different color moustache and different color beard and different color hair to boot? I've seen a few.

Here's a wikipedia article definition of it... (I know, wikipedia? lol) but it's close enough: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics))
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A chimera or chimaera is a single organism (usually an animal) that is composed of two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated from different zygotes involved in sexual reproduction. If the different cells have emerged from the same zygote, the organism is called a mosaic. Chimeras are formed from at least four parent cells (two fertilized eggs or early embryos fused together). Each population of cells keeps its own character and the resulting organism is a mixture of tissues.