To me, the bilateralness is the super cool part. I imagine that this happens more often, but you just don't notice from a visual inspection.
Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist
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Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist
#22Which we can all agree is both cool and a biological anomaly… much like it can happen in humans.
I don't think there's any known example of bilateral chimerism in humans? Hermaphroditism is humans (and for that matter, in birds; the above is a really unusual case) works completely differently.
Perhaps not such a stunning bilateral one, but two-sex chimerism definitely is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_chimera
And I can really only say "perhaps". Humans have often hidden or killed their abnormalities for much of history, and birds significantly outnumber us.
(edit: there's a semi-recent example of noticable partial bilateral human chimerism actually: https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/health-and-wellbei... Seems like largely a numbers game to me.)
Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist
#23What happens when it wants to mate?
Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist
#24Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
? > “The phenomenon arises from an error during female cell division to produce an egg, followed by double-fertilization by two sperm,” he explains. The bird is a chimera, with a different genome on each side of its body, one male (ZZ), one female (ZW).
... and they determined that from a photo?
It's not the first bilateral gynandromorph bird found, though it.may be the first for this species.
Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist
#26> captured on film The article makes no further mentions of actual film, so presumably the phrase now also applies to digital photography?!
Yep; English tends to hold onto these archaic references. People also still talk about getting things on tape etc.
Back when things were on tape they would still call it film.
Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist
#27half female, half male phenotype .
It sounds like it's a chimera, so there's actually a half male half female genotype (or rather, a full male genotype in half the body and a full female genotype in the other part).
Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
? > “The phenomenon arises from an error during female cell division to produce an egg, followed by double-fertilization by two sperm,” he explains. The bird is a chimera, with a different genome on each side of its body, one male (ZZ), one female (ZW).
... and they determined that from a photo?
I mean... we know how biology works? So...
Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist
#29Which we can all agree is both cool and a biological anomaly… much like it can happen in humans.
Human chimera exist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_chimera
Re: Rare half female, half male bird spotted by University of Otago zoologist
#30Which we can all agree is both cool and a biological anomaly… much like it can happen in humans.
I'm not sure if it could happen in humans, but apparently it has never been observed. This phenomena is called bilateral gynandromorphism and is where the entire body shows both male and female traits (along a bilateral split). You're probably thinking of hermaphrodites (e.g. she-males) which is where the animal only has reproductive organs of both sexes.
Chimerism exists in humans as well, and likely gynandromorphism as well. I don't think this bilateral version has ever been seen, but more subtle forms may be more common than assumed - it can only really be discovered through genetic testing of different parts of the body.