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Article: A world without color: life is full of hidden dangers for animals lacking hue.(Life Genetics)
- Article from:
- Science World
- Article date:
- December 6, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Scholastic, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Last spring, a zebra born in Africa's Nairobi National Park caused quite a stir. That's because the newborn foal was stripeless. Unlike others in its herd, the knobby-kneed newborn had pink eyes and an all-white body--a sure sign it was an albino.
What caused the milky hue? Usually, plants and animals get their distinctive coloring from pigments, or colored chemical compounds that absorb light. Before birth, an organism's genes (units of hereditary material) normally direct its cells to produce these pigments. But Nairobi's newest zebra--and most other albino animals, including humans--lacks these color-coding genes. The result? An unusual phenotype (FEE-no-type, ...