aggy has produced a new mascot.
Callipyge Sheep
The callipyge gene, was found in a flock of sheep in Oklahoma in the early 1980s. Some of these sheep had large muscling in their loins and legs.
Callipyge Sheep
The gene responsible for the callipyge mutation, which produces sheep with big muscular bottoms, has been identified.
Named from the Greek words for 'beautiful buttocks', the callipyge mutation results in sheep with unusually big and muscular bottoms. Getting to the bottom of the gene which is responsible for the phenotype has proved difficult as the callipyge phenotype is an imprinted trait which is expressed in a unique parent-of-origin dependent manner known as paternal polar overdominance. To date, the callipyge gene is the only known example of this mode of inheritance in mammals.The callipyge gene, was found in a flock of sheep in Oklahoma in the early 1980s. Some of these sheep had large muscling in their loins and legs.