Essai tra

1. Basic Genetics 1
2. Basic Genetics 2
3. The Pigeons & Humans
4. Mutation & Natural Selection
5. Pigeon Colors 1
6. Pigeon Colors 2
7. Pigeon Patterns
8. Pigeon Eye Colors
9. X-Pigeons
~ BASIC PIGEON GENETICS Part 1 ~
You are here because you want to understand the colors and patterns of your pigeons, and breed your desired offspring. You would like to
know which parents you need to breed together to get that desired trait. Perhaps you are wondering why you can’t get a black and white
grizzle when you mate a white-self bird with a black-self bird. You want to understand how you got a blue youngster from two red parents.
You are wondering if you could get an almond offspring when you breed a yellow bird with a brown bird, then breed the offspring from this
mating with the offspring of black and white parents.
Ancient people were also concerned with genetics and inheritance and sometimes developed some fantastic ideas about it because they did
not understand our present concept of genetic science. They believed in mermaids, a mythological aquatic creature with a female human
head and torso and the tail of a fish. Another example of the ancients' fascination with hybrid offspring is Pegasus -- a winged horse in
Greek mythology, representing a divine horse that was fathered by Poseidon. In the ancient Arabic culture, it was believed that if you
crossed a camel with a sparrow, you would get an ostrich, or you would get a wild boar if you crossed a goat with a dog. We can get pouter
pigeons when we cross a rooster with a bull frog. Then cross the offspring to a homing pigeon. Of course, you see in the picture below a
prime example of what happens when you breed a pony with a Birmingham Roller.

Unfortunately, genetic science can be a very complicated
subject. It is even harder to write about genetics because
there are still many pigeon colors and patterns, the
inheritance of which is almost entirely unknown. The fact is,
no one really knows all the genetic parts needed to make a
human being. Hence, not much is known about pigeon
genetics. Not only do we not know what all the genes are and
where they are located, we don't even know how many there
are. Therefore, like the rest of genetics, pigeon genetics still
has a lot of unknown elements.
So far, we only know about 50 different mutants in pigeons
in detailed behavior, but we know that there are many, many
more that we do not understand in detail yet. Nonetheless,
science moves forward swiftly. We live in a time when if
you do not keep up with these rapid changes, what you think
you know has simply been replaced by new discoveries
much of the time. What is known as classical genetics, which
is a field concerned with the explanation of traits and how
they are inherited from parents to offspring, has been
updated with the advent of molecular biology and
biochemistry.
Attacking the genetic problems at the biochemical level after
the Hollander Era has already started to pay off for pigeon
genetics. With the start of the Genomic Era in pigeon genetics, results found in testing tubes in labs are already proving to be much more
accurate than conventional Mendelian results. Thus, if you learned about genetics in the '60s or '70s and did not keep up, you are so
hopelessly behind that what you know is next to useless beyond the most rudimentary problems. However, although the advent of yeast
molecular genetics has introduced new and exciting capabilities, classical genetics still remains the approach of choice in many instances.
In any case, if you are a beginner and have no prior knowledge in genetics, don’t panic yet. I intend to cover the basic genetics first. The
information in these pages is not a comprehensive work intended to cover all aspects of pigeon genetics, but instead helps pigeon breeders

understand how traits are inherited and how this can help them breed better quality of pigeons. If you are reading this page or pages like
these, you are also one of those elite pigeon breeders with the right attitude who do not say, “This is a hobby, not a science project!” I am a
computer science teacher, and biology has always been one of my favorite subjects. I am neither a scientist nor a geneticist. I am just a
curious, albeit serious, pigeon breeder, and I would like to understand as much as I can about my hobby to produce the desired offspring.
Although I have been experimenting with genetics since 2007, most of the information in this website comes from research I have done
using Internet forums and email groups, books, science magazines, and my interaction with other elite pigeon breeders and, most
importantly, with scientists.
I would like to give special thanks and appreciation to Dr. Richard Cryberg (chemist by training) for his help and his contributions to this
website and for assisting me in every aspect of pigeon genetics. Dr. Cryberg's exceptional knowledge in genetics and chemistry, his patience
and willingness to assist, where possible, is greatly appreciated. I would also like to thank Mr. Frank Mosca (biologist by training), who also
helped me to understand the basics of pigeon genetics and allowed me to use his website as one of the references. Without these two great
scientists of the hobby mentioned above, I would still be able to study and write about basic pigeon genetics, but I highly doubt I could learn
it this fast with accuracy and with this kind of sophistication. My goal is to collect and report what we currently know about pigeon genetics
so that future students of pigeon genetics after Hollander, Miller, and Quinn could start studying genetics with the most up-to-date
information. I have also used a variety of references. Click here to view work cited.

I update this website very often as I gain more knowledge in pigeon genetics.
Although I try not to make it too difficult and technical, if you are a beginner or
have no prior knowledge in genetics, you might want to spend some time reading
about basic genetics on this page before moving on to the next pages.
Understanding the information, especially about basic genetics, will take you
above and beyond the many pigeon breeders and fanciers. So don’t be
discouraged and think it is beyond your understanding. Although genetics can be
very complicated, it can also be a lot more interesting and a lot more fun than you
might think. In order to better understand pigeon genetics, you should be familiar
with basic genetics and genetic terms first. Thus, I will start with some simple
definitions, which will hopefully create some familiarity with terms. When you
get comfortable with the basic terms, then the subject of pigeon genetics should
not seem so difficult.
So, are you ready to explore pigeon genetics? All right! This is mission control.
For your safety, please buckle up, remain seated, and keep your eyes on the
monitor at all times. No talking, sleeping, smoking, eating, drinking, videotaping,
flash photography, copying, or pasting while you are visiting this website. These
rules are for the safety of the readers to avoid the severe damages to themselves
as well as the safety of their domestic pigeon breeds. Mumtaztic Loft will not be
responsible for any liability. I highly recommend that before you are cleared for
launch, read the following friendly warning if you would like to survive pigeon
genetics.
For those of you who might be thinking about breaking the rules above, I have
genetically engineered the best loft protector, scientific name "Columba Raptor," to help me keep the order around here. For your
information, the disobedient readers will be penalized accordingly. Let me tell you what happened to the last guy who attempted to steal the
copyrighted material form this website without my permission.

When he thought about highlighting a paragraph, his lungs punctured in a matter of seconds, but his death did not come without pain. While
he was screaming for help, hanging in the air on the raptor’s talons, flying back to his nest, the perpetrator's head was gently but slowly
separated from his body and used as a snack for the remainder of the flight.
The rest of his useless body was fed to the little raptors who were impatiently waiting for their parents to bring food to them. Columba
Raptors are capable of carrying weights up to three hundred pounds (137 kg). The blue checks are usually faster and deadlier than the ash-
red bars. They can smell and hear ignorance from miles away, and they are specifically bred to seek and destroy ignorant people. I suggest
you act like you understand what you are about to read, and try to look calm at all times. Thank you for following the rules and not violating
any copyright laws; I hope you will enjoy the rest of this website. You are now cleared for launch. Travel at your own risk!
All right, let’s get serious and start learning genetics, which is not as deadly as the Columba Raptor which is created by Adobe Photoshop (a
raster graphics editing software), and not by nature. Let me start with the brief history of life on Earth to give you an idea how long it took
to get this far.
Approximately 4.6 billion years ago, Earth was formed. We know this because radioactive dating of rocks found on the moon, meteorites,
and Earth all give this as the maximum date. In its 4.6 billion years circling the sun, the Earth has harbored an increasing diversity of life
forms, but it wasn’t until 4.0 billion years ago that Earth started to cool down to became viable for living things to exist on it. Conditions on
Earth four billion years ago were very different than they are today. The atmosphere lacked oxygen, and an ozone layer did not yet protect
Earth from harmful radiation. Heavy rains, lightning and volcanic activity were common. Yet the earliest cells originated in this extreme
environment. Today, a group of single-celled organisms called archaeabacteria, or archaea, still thrive in extreme habitats. We don’t know
how life originated; it probably arose on Earth, but an alternate theory suggests it arose elsewhere and drifted through space to seed the
Earth. Many theories of the origin of life have been proposed, but since it's hard to prove or disprove them, no fully accepted theory exists.
About 3.7 billion years ago, the first prokaryotic (single cell) organism was present on Earth when there was no oxygen in the atmosphere.
About 3.4 billion years ago, cyanobacteria started to perform photosynthesis. It took almost another 2 billion years—roughly 1.5 billion
years ago—in which nucleated cells through nucleus evolved. Thus, it took 300 million years to evolve life on Earth, but it took another 2
billion years to be able to evolve the nucleus. It seems that evolving a nucleus was a big deal and hard to do, and likewise, evolving past
single cells was also a big deal and hard to do. Both of these steps seem harder than it was to form the first life, based on the amount of time
it took for each step. Perhaps it was because first cells didn’t have any competition to survive. About a half billion years ago, eukaryotic
(multicellular) life evolved. Hence, these dates suggests that making life start was not all that hard, but making life evolve into something
complex was a major step for life on Earth. About 600 million years ago, simple animals started to evolve. Five hundred million years ago,
fish and proto-amphibians; 475 million years ago, land plants; 400 million years ago, insects and seeds; 360 million years ago, amphibians;
300 million years ago, reptiles; 200 million years ago, mammals; 150 million years ago, birds; 130 million years ago, flowers; 60 million