Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I don't know what Hypo or het means. Or a bunch of other terms. It makes me feel like a moron, but I want to know what the crap people are talking about. I know it has to do with color morphs, but that is about it. Thank you to anyone who can explain it to me without making me feel like a bigger moron.

Don't worry, we were all "morons" once.

Does anyone know of an online glossary of these term that DOESN'T get unduly technical? If not, maybe I'll put one together on my site.

I'll throw out a couple of the more common ones.

Hypo: USUALLY short for "hypomelanistic", meaning having reduced melanin (black/brown pigment).

Amelanistic: Completely lacking melanin, often called "albino".

Het: Short for "heterozygous", meaning it carries two versions of the same gene, usually one recessive, one dominant. In most cases you can't see any effect of the recessive gene.

Anery: Short for "anerythristic", lacking red pigment.

Leucistic: Lacking all pigments, sometimes called "snow".

Lots more I can't think of offhand, but I need to get to work...

Here is a nice glossary of herp terminology--
Link

I thought I remembered seeing one somewhere.

Does anyone know if/who is maintaining this glossary? Oddly enough, 3 out of the 5 terms I picked off the top of my head are not there, nor is the common abbreviation of the fourth...

Larry,

You're right. It sure could use an update. I tried to find some herp glossaries on the net, but they all varied in listings. I haven't seen postings from Oldherper lately, so I'm not sure if he has updated the list in a while.

lizardman how do you get those links in your posts? It sure beats explaining how to get it.

Ian

Ian:

Just copy the IP address in the address bar (of your toolbar- above)--of the site that you want as the link, then paste down below where it says: [Link URL:]; then post the message.

That's all.

Just a correction on this phenotype. The list was good, but actually, leucistic animals do not lack all pigment. They are white because they only have white pigment with the exclusion of all other pigments.

Kelly

Guanine is a reflective substance and thus not a "pigment" by the usual biological definition.

"white pigment" was a poor choice of words on my part. The white color exhibited is not a true pigment, but rather the color produced by light refraction and reflection caused by the purine compounds as you stated. Thanks,

Kelly

Nothing wrong with wanting to learn, man. Nothing, at all.