Posted by:
Rextiles
at Thu May 24 16:54:08 2012 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Rextiles ]
I myself would love to know why amelanistic is better than albino.
It's not that using Amelanistic is better than Albino, it's actually about correct usage of the terms. Albinism is used when an animal has no color pigmentation at all, hence the white coloration. To be an albino, an animal must have no skin pigmentations such as melanin (black), xanthaphores (yellow) and erythrophores (red), this in turn would create an all white, albino, animal. Unlike certain animals (humans for instance) that typically only have melanin to define skin pigmentation, snakes can have all 3 pigmentations (plus a few others) that create all the wonderful colors present. Now, for example, let's take a typical "Albino" Western Hognose. Obviously, "Albino" Western Hognose are not white as we clearly see yellows (Xanthaphores) and usually accompanying reds (erythrophores). Being that the yellow and red coloration is present shows that the animal is not a true albino. Amelanism on the other hand is generally defined as being an absent of melanin, which these Western Hognose in fact are, absent of melanin only.
Here's a wonderful article that explains this more in depth: Link
Example: I had no idea that anery/axanthic was a simple recessive trait...
Here's another misused pair of terms, Axanthic and Anerythristic which are often used interchangeably. Neither term is the same as the other and despite my best efforts to share over the years what I have learned with these posts(Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4), some stubbornly still continue to use, IMO, Anerythrism incorrectly.
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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles
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Revisiting common genetic terms... - Rextiles, Thu May 24 16:54:08 2012
