HOME | DD
Alithographica — Science Fact Friday: Siamese Cats Are Heat Maps
#animal #biology #cat #color #feline #genetics #heat #illustration #map #melanin #nature #pet #science #scientific #scientificillustration #siamese #tyrosinase
Published: 2018-02-23 18:48:08 +0000 UTC; Views: 3243; Favourites: 126; Downloads: 17
Redirect to original
Description
While the Siamese cat breed is the most notable example of this mutation, lots of other cat breeds have it - Tonkinese and Burmese, for example. Some rabbits and mice also show temperature-sensitive point coloration.
Support Science Fact Friday on Patreon !
Related content
Comments: 22
my mom has a flame siamese
his orange was basically taking over during the winter
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
OOoo wow my cat was Siamese. He passed away a few years ago but this is so neat!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oo neat! They're so cute.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
We actually had this in biologyclass back in school. Along with some plant that reacted to I guess it was the soil, but I can't recollect that. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Nice! Like soil-sensitive color changes in flowers? That's cool. c:
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I can't remember if it was the soil or the temperature but I do belive it was about primulas. Very cool stuff.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Cool! I'll look into that.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Really cool-- I wonder how it works on mixed breeds though. My cat is a mutt and, while she has the typical Siamese markings, it's missing on one of her feet and there are other dark markings too. ;u;
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Caaaat c:
Depends on the exact marking! Admittedly I'm not an expert. To my understanding there are 7 genes that each "code" for different types of coats. Breeders prefer to breed for clean colorpoint/Siamese markings because of breed standards and whatnot, but you can definitely mix some other genes in there. Siamese-tabbies are apparently a color mix that is becoming more popular?
More on that here, though I didn't read the whole thing: messybeast.com/colour-charts.h…
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Huh, interesting! That's really cool, sounds fun to look further into as well! ;u;
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Basically marshmallows with a few burnt marks, except the burnt marks are cooler
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Haha basically. Inverse marshmallows.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Another cool learning experience! Which I guess would turn the fur dark.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Ahaha I see what you did there.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
How do you choose what fact you are going to draw every week?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
It's pretty all-over-the-place lmao.
Mostly I have a lot of random knowledge or unanswered science questions of my own. I was (partially) a bio major in college and am generally a science lover so I know some cool things from my classes already. Homologous features, chytrid fungus, snake jaw hinges, etc. all came from that background.
Others come from totally new info. Last week I saw two videos/articles that really intrigued me: one on Siamese cats being temperature-sensitive, and another on apocrine sweat glands. (The apocrine glands might be next week unless something more interesting comes up - but definitely on my to do list.)
Usually the articles/videos/ideas are pretty general and I have to do a lot of external research to get all the information used in these graphics. Sometimes I'll be in the middle of researching and will (a) decide I'm not actually that interested, (b) decide there's not enough content to make it worthwhile, or (c) follow a related link to something else that I end up doing instead.
I also sometimes pull ideas from friends or followers. c:
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks. that is so cool.
Where you ever afraid no one would care about the things you find fascinating?
(You know now others love what you love by the outpouring of response ) But was there a time you just had to take a leap of faith about it?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Leap of faith! And ultimately it's a project to keep me busy and on a schedule, which I find helpful for my work overall. It'd be a bit discouraging if nobody cared but I would've kept at it for my own interest - but thankfully the response has been great. c:
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
