Remarkable Axolotl Coloration

[Daniel]

That's a chimera. Splice two embryos down the neural crest and combine, et voila.

In this case mother nature did the splicing and recombining herself.

 

[Jake]

looks like pirate but more pronounced.

MUCH more pronounced! What sex is this axolotl, or is it too young to say? Pirate seems to be a hermaphrodite, I honestly can't tell the sex on him/her, but either way I'll set it up to mate with it's father or it's aunt. As previously stated, this is almost definitely not a genetic trait, but an accidental mutation. It is, however, a very beautiful creature. The larval pic looks much like Pirate as a larva (see the link below).

http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=45802&highlight=Pirate

 

[John]

In this case mother nature did the splicing and recombining herself.

If you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

 

[Daniel]

If you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Well, John - I run the (German) forum the pictures were posted on the first time and I know the person who owns this animal. And if I am not completely fooled by this person (and I do not think so), it has to be mother nature.

 

[John]

This is mother nature in action: http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=45802

 

[sherrisixxx]

Totally amazing! Wow, never seen anything like this

 

[Tim S]

Your Axolotl could be a haploid/diploid mosaic resulting from gynogenetic development with the sperm genome combining with the maternal genome after the first cell division. A beast similar to yours can be seen in an article be Fankhauser and Humphrey's (1959) J. Exp. Zool. 142: 379-421.

 

[Kiowa]

Dickschaedel is truely beautiful and amazing.

 

[featherbutt]

I think chimerisim in larval salamanders is probably more common than we realize.
You just cant tell unless the extremely unlikely event that the two zygotes combined are different colors.

Besides this bilateral expression of possible chimerism, there are also labratory-made chimeras that express a division across the body.

theoretically. you could produce quarter, eighth and even checkered 16ths if you selectively exchanged cells during the early embryogenesis divisions.

THAT would be frankencool!

 

[oceanblue]

I can accept that this is a natural chimera. Because of the way the neural crest develops as a rolling fold into the neural tube to get this appearance artificially you would need to combine cells very early - two, four or eight cells - chopping down the neural crest would be almost impossible: later artificial chimeras are all head one colour tail another.

If this is a haploid/diploid mosaic then the haploid bit is the leucistic side.

The egg had only the white allele and the normal gene was sperm derived. Careful comparison of the pigment spots on the leucistic side with its siblings should show the pigment cells are smaller than those on diploid leucistic siblings. The definative way to prove its genetics is to chop bits off for chromosome analysis (tip of tail is favourite but here tips of gill look appropriate)- this would be interesting but wouldn't do it any good - a problem for the ethics section.

 

[briannashea]

wowww...I'm new to axies but that still blows my mind, definitely a rarity sweet post

 

[bob2143]

That is the coolest thing i have ever seen!!

 

[b00f]

that is amazing...

he is very healthy looking aswell

well done

 

[TicTacJunkie]

This is amazing

so beautiful!!
my axies have some patches but not a straight line down the middle!
WOW

 

[little high]

He is absolutely amazing.....so very very gorgeous and ying yang like hehehehe

 

[CathyGo]

Awesome looking axie!

 

[Gingrich]

That's really cool! It reminds me of those lobsters that have a different color on each side.

 

[optimist]

Fab creature. I've always thought the leucistic ones look like clowns, but this one looks like a medieval jester!

 

[KnB]

Thats really neat!

 

[blueberlin]

Hi all,

I am back with permission to upload some updates of Dickschaedel. As you can see, Dickschaedel has grown nicely all these months into a handsome axolotl. The last two pics lead to my next question. Someone on the German forum mentioned that a chimera will be sterile; has anyone here heard of that? Interestingly - well, look at the pictures of Dickschaedel from the white and from the dark side. Notice anything?

-Eva