DNA, Chromosomes and Chimera talk

[asplundii]

My point was not that this animal was in fact a hybrid just that there is a possibility, if not very small, of the animal the vet described could exist in real life.

Ant,

Reading all of your replies it seems you are somewhat confused about how the genetics of chimeras work even after OWAL's attempts to clear it up. Perhaps I might have more success.

First off, no, it is absolutely not possible for an animal like the vet described to exist and I say that with absolute certainty. You cannot have a hybrid that is genetically/phenotypically ball python on the outside and genetically/phenotypically blood python on the inside.

A chimera comes about from the the fusion of two embryos in the womb. The embryos have different genotypes and so, when a chimera is sampled by both skin sample and blood sample, the two samples come back as being different. However, both samples come back as being from the same mother and father, which is to say the samples look like they came from siblings, despite the fact that they came from a single individual. The samples do not come back looking like two wholly unrelated entities.

So... If you had a ball/blood hybrid and if it were a chimera, it would look exactly like a normal ball/blood hybrid on the outside and on the inside and the only way you could tell it was a chimera would be by genetic testing and not by popping it.