What causes the black paradox markings?

[Galaxygirl]

I just bought a Pastel Enchi girl that has those black paradox markings on her. Does anyone know what actually causes these markings, and if they ever actually affect their offspring genetically? Owner says that maybe she has gravel in her?

[Galaxygirl]

Or maybe the above isn't considered "paradox". She wasn't advertised as so, but I've seen those black markings on other "paradox" bps.

[Eric Alan]

Paradox markings are simply genetic abnormalities. If we knew what caused them, there would definitely be more of them in the hobby since they're so stinkin' cool!

[AllieKin]

I'm fairly certain that the cause of paradox markings is unknown.

[Galaxygirl]

Interesting! I'm curious to find out if her clutch produces anything funky

[aLittleLessButter]

Paradox is just another name for Chimerism. They were twins that never split but we're different morphs so you can see the patterns of both. The "black markings" you see on lighter colored morphs is the normal or darker morph coming through. Chimerism pops up in other animals as well and is a pretty cool genetic anomaly.

[Daigga]

Paradox is just another name for Chimerism. They were twins that never split but we're different morphs so you can see the patterns of both. The "black markings" you see on lighter colored morphs is the normal or darker morph coming through. Chimerism pops up in other animals as well and is a pretty cool genetic anomaly.

False. True chimerism is incredibly rare, and there is absolutely zero proof of paradox animals being chimeras. Besides that, this would indicate that every single paradox ball python started out as a twin embryo, and twins in ball pythons (particularly fraternal twins) are rare to start with. There is no chimera anything happening in this animal, nor most other paradoxes I have owned or seen.

Away from rant now. I own two paradox ball pythons right now and love the anomaly. My cinnapin is pretty simple and only has a ringer on his tail, so it isn't so fancy as the black paradoxing that your pastel enchi or my calico pastel has. It's very unfortunate that we don't know much about what causes paradoxes, since they're way cool.

My calico pastel for comparison;

[Sonny1318]

I feel like I'm one of the only who really isn't crazy about paradox markings. I've seen a couple that were nice, but for the most part it looks like someone got over spray on them. XD