Proof on the Spider gene. OWAL take a look

[Freakie_frog]

after reading the first few pages and the last few pages, my opinion about the spider gene doesn't change at all.


the mechanism is simple: heterozygous spiders are fine, and homozygous spiders don't exist because the homozygous spider is lethal.

since the original poster didn't mention the amount of slugs, i still see two options:

1.) Homozygous spider is very deadly, so that the embryo dies so fast that the mother snake produces a slug instead of a full-sized egg.

2.) Homozygous spider is even more deadly, so that the fertilized zygote cannot even split once, or something prevents the egg from forming, and the mother snake doesn't even produce a slug. I consider it remotely possible that the female simply responds by producing another egg, that females just fill their bellies with eggs and stop when they have as many eggs growing as they can handle. But i think a 25% drop in fertility is more likely.

Let me just throw this out there. slugs were never at any point fertile. Fertilization happens when the snake ovulates or shortly after. So slug never saw genetic material from either parent. The more likely idea is that infertile eggs were "Super spiders" didn't make it past the first cellular division. However because we don't truly understand reptile DNA and the associated mutations of it we wont be able to say for sure that the morphs are determined at the time of the first division or even later on. it's more likely that the mutation kicks in later in the embryo's development since its things like pigment and what not that are effected. With all of that said I've long said that it's naive to think that the only thing these mutations effect physiologically is skin pigment, We see kinking, cleft jaws, small eye's wobble's, duck bills ect ect. All of those this are changes to the anatomy of the animal.

Still so much to learn and discover