"well, you say that it has nothing to do with the incubation process AND it has everything to do with genetics. so you contradict yourself."



No, he didnt... He said that they have nothing to do with eachother.



"in the incubation process all the genetics are "taking place". if you can manipulate the environment, you can manipulate the genetics. i know from human genetics that hair color and most physical features are developed later in the stages of embryonic growth."



Um... NO. The genetics are decided BEFORE the eggs are laid. They are decided when the gametes are created inside each of the parents before mating. These genes are locked away into the DNA to be read and "build" while the embryo is forming, but those are locked in place from when the gametes are formed, not when they are read. It is true that the embryo is not forming until incubation, but its genetics have already been laid down. There is no changing that.



"ohhh....would make a great master's thesis to develop albino bearded dragons by knocking out the gene for color."



If you "Knock out" the gene for color, which there is more than one because color is a polygenetic trait, You will only leave behind a tattered and mutilated DNA strand. An embryo cannot be build from only a percentage of a DNA strand.



Your next post will probably be about cloning and genetic enginering, so I will touch on that now.



The reason that genetic engenering is possible is that scientists have spent YEARS and BILLIONS of dollars to "map" out the DNA of what ever they are trying to change. That way they know exactally what will happen if something is tampered with. They replace the unwanted gene with something else and hope that they get the desired results, but the failure rate is very high. If I remember right they killed between 1 and 2 thousand embryos just to create ONE sheep when they cloned Dolly.



Now, Bearded Dragons have not been mapped out or studied to the degree needed to even think about what you are implying.



BTW, I am not trying to put you down. I just think you need to learn a little more about genetics.
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Leopard geckos

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