this was originally at the end of the (long--sorry!) post below int he thread about extreme hypos. I figured it might prompt more discussion if pulled out and presented on its own, and that's what i'm doing here. it would be best to read this, i think, after reading my 11/5 post in the extreme hypo thread)



And this last mind-bending thought: there COULD be two diff hypo morphs EACH of which reduces melanin to the same degree. Suppose the Loves produced the first, and that a second, genetically different but visually similar one appeared more recently. Nobody'd notice, right? At least, until they bred two hypos together and didn't get hypos. BUT: what if the new morph occurred in mike falcon's group so all are "regular" hypos....breeding them together you'd still get all hypos so nobody would notice anything odd--EXCEPT for the occasional extremely light animal, which might be the result of combining the effects of two similar hypo morphs (if they each reduce melanin an average 35%, then babies showing BOTH morphs would have melanin reduced 70%. And those are averages...a double morph baby having better than average reduction could show only 10% of the melanin, for ex. (can this theory account for mike alvarez' reported experience of breeding extreme x extreme and getting 6 babies, 5 of which were obviously extremes and one of which did not appear to be so? maybe.)



peace

terry

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