On Nov 12, 6:33 am, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley writes:
|
| Indeed. I am half-expecting someone to find an oddity among even
| the mammals one of these days.
|
| Does the existence of 5 pairs of sex chromosomes in the platypus
| qualify?

Yes, but we can then debate whether they are mammals! Now, there
is an excellent, long-running, academic debate :-)

| It seems about as weird as
| permanent translocation heterozygosity in some Onagraceae (classically
| in Oenothera section Oenothera) ...

I require notice of that term! I have found a page for students that
explains it, and will read it when I have time ....

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Don't sweat it. Humans have between 65 to 95 percent "unused" or
"junk" genes (depending on how you count.) However it turns out they
are anything but "junk", mainly providing "blueprints" for specific
immune-response(s) to human diseases which have been rampant, and may
be so again, or other tricks-of-the-trade-of-staying-alive in a
hostile environment. I fully expect other animals and plants and fish
and what-have-you's to have similar tricksy information stashed in
_their_ "junk" gene pattern or pool. (Which is really the same thing:
if there is an epidemic, the "pattern" of one surviving individual may
permeate the pool.) It doesn't have to make sense to us for it to work.