Talk:Polymorphism (biology)

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Greetings,
Your jaguar photos are lovely (I did not know that melanistic jaguars are also called panthers). I think another learning opportunity would be a comparison of leopard / black panther. Most people think of them as two completely different species when they are actually morphs.

• "14 Fun Facts About Black Panthers: Many of the Marvel superhero’s powers are inspired by the namesake predator"

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/14-fun-facts-about-black-panthers-180981112/

"The melanistic trait is genetic and owes itself to recessive alleles in leopards and dominant alleles in jaguars, says Byron Weckworth, director of conservation genetics at Panthera, a conservation organization for wild cats. Though melanin concentrations can vary between jaguars and leopards born in the same litter, melanistic jaguars and leopards are rare. “About 10 percent of cats are roughly estimated to be of the black color morph across both species [jaguars and leopards], and that’s all due to various environmental pressures and natural selection,” Weckworth says." [my emphasis]

• "Leopard"

https://www.britannica.com/animal/leopard

"A black form, in which the ground colour as well as the spots is black, is widely known as the black panther..."

At the Bronx Zoo on a sunlight day, I could clearly see the slightly darker spots all through their panther's coat. I was young and it was long ago, so I do not remember how they had the critter labeled.
Thank you for your time, Wordreader (talk) 14:21, 21 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]