Posted by:
rtdunham
at Sun Feb 14 03:48:21 2010 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by rtdunham ]
>>
>>It seems the term albinism was/is used not only for the lack of black pigment but the lack or reduction of any pigment.....
I am under the impression the term albino was originally applied to mammals, which have only melanin: the absence of that one pigment produced white animals, which were called albinos. More specifically, they were amelanistic.
But when a tricolor king, for example, lacks melanin, it still contains skin cells producing red or yellow coloration. So they're not white, and are more properly called amels, but not albinos. Calling them albinos is sorta common-practice gone awry and probably too far out of the box to be put back in, like the "anerythristic" hondos that are actually hypoerythristic.
at least that's my take on it.
[ Show Entire Thread ]
|
