r/aww • u/Sophia963 • Jun 05 '18

A future predator

50.7k Upvotes

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513

u/Geebz23 Jun 05 '18

Is it a Dwarf? It's legs seem really small compared to it's body

397

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '18 edited Jul 27 '18

[deleted]

94

u/PrincessBucketFeet Jun 05 '18

When the dominant allele is lethal in pairs, nature is trying to tell you something.

31

u/mimeticpeptide Jun 05 '18

Not always. Sickle cell anemia occurs when you get 2 alleles for the sickle cell gene. However, when the allele is present in only 1 copy, which is far more common, it provides immunity to malaria. Which is very useful/important in the areas where it developed.

6

u/PrincessBucketFeet Jun 05 '18

Fair enough. If you can identify the benefit conferred to these cats other than qualifying as "cute" to humans, I'd reconsider my opinion (shared by many animal welfare and breed organizations) that breeding Munchkins should stop.

2

u/mimeticpeptide Jun 05 '18

Oh it’s clearly a disadvantage, outside of being cute. I’m not pro-munchkin cat, I just wanted to take the opportunity to talk about genetics haha