Crazy thought

[Traxolotl]

You know how there chimera salamanders and stuff? Well what if a axolotl had a baby with a tiger salamander and it was a chimera and only one half of it morphed? what would happen to the sal?

 

[Kaysie]

If the hormones are being produced to induce morphing, the whole animal would morph. The reason axolotls don't undergo metamorphosis is because they don't produce sufficient quantities of the necessary hormones.

I can't imagine an animal like that would be very hardy.

 

[frogman]

What is a chimera salamander?

 

[Traxolotl]

So no chance of a half baked sal?

 

[Azhael]

No, both halfs would be controlled by the same hormonal system.

Frogman, a chimera is an inidividual that is formed by the fussion of two zygotes, which means it´s made of two separate and distinctive celular lines. In axolotls it can follow a striking sagital symmetry, where one half is, let´s say leucistic, and the other half, wild type. In humans it´s far more convoluted.

 

[Molch]

the only way I can imagine, in theory, a chimera only half-morphed is if one of the two genomes has a genetic receptor defect that would prevent cells from binding the hormone for metamorphosis.

In theory, anyways. Just a nerdy idea...

 

[Molch]

for kicks and giggles, here a couple links to Dunbar's Gold, an extremely rare chimera quarter horse stallion. He has a brindle coat as a result of chimerism, which is a very rare color in horses. Crazily, one of his genomes is female - obviously not the one forming his 'nads, because he's a successful breeding stallion

One In A Million: Part 1 – America’s Horse Daily]

http://www.itsmypony.com/news-archive/189-dunbars-gold

without genetic testing, they would never have known. Which means, any one of us could be a chimera! In fact, some have hypothesized that chimerism isn't as rare as generally believed, because in many cases it would require genetic testing to be uncovered.