Gynandromorphs: one of the rarest and most amazing mutations in animals (6 photos)

During embryo development, nothing can go according to plan. For example, a child may be born half boy and half girl!





This phenomenon is called gynandromorphism. It occurs due to a malfunction in the cell division mechanism of the embryo. Usually such mistakes become fatal. But sometimes the animal gets lucky.



What are you looking at? I haven't put on makeup yet.

During one of the millions of divisions, one single cell loses its sex chromosome, but does not die, but continues to reproduce. Therefore, one part of the body develops along the male path, and the other along the female path. This is how a gynandromorphist is born - an organism whose whole pieces have a different set of sex chromosomes.





In many species, sex chromosomes influence not only color, but also body shape. And then such beauties are born.

The final look may turn out completely different. Male and female pieces are not always equal and not always even. Sometimes gynandomorphs have only a tiny speck of the opposite sex. Moreover, not only the color, but also the shape of the body changes, if this is prescribed by the sex chromosomes.



Guys, yes I belong! And there’s just light on my wing!

This phenomenon is rare. Although it is found among a whole bunch of groups of animals: birds, lizards, fish and most invertebrates. But if such an animal gets caught on camera, it immediately becomes an Internet star. After all, this phenomenon is not only rare, but also beautiful!



When I overslept for work and dressed in the first things that caught my eye.

In the summer of 2022, a couple of tourists vacationing in Colombia met a green gynandromorph honeyguide. Fortunately for us, one of them turned out to be a biology professor, and the second was an amateur ornithologist. They quickly assessed the rarity of the find, photographed the animal and went to study the Internet. There they found out that this was the second recorded case of gynandromorphism in this species. And the first one was more than 100 years ago! So tourists are twice lucky! And they took full advantage of their luck and wrote a note in a scientific journal.



Blue plumage is the male's plumage. And the honey guide girls wear green.

And they weren't the only ones lucky. All biologists are happy about gynandromorphism. After all, this phenomenon is an invaluable source of information about the work of genes, cell division and their interaction within one organism. It’s just a pity that such creatures are useless for evolution. Due to the twisted genome, gynandromorphs are not capable of reproduction.