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Rare 'half-male, half-female' cardinal photographed in Pennsylvania
- brandonmenc 6y agoAnother one? I'm originally from that part of the country, and I swear my mom sends me a story like this every couple of years. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/09/science/cardinal-sex-gender.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/09/science/cardinal-sex-gend...
- waiseristy 6y agoI think the authors description of this being one-in-a-million must be pretty accurate then!
- withmorten 6y agoWell, we all know that one-in-a-million chances crop up nine times out of ten.
- sp332 6y agoThe article says it might be the same one.
- Udik 6y agoThe Catholic church really has made incredible progress.
- 40four 6y agoI vouched since there is another comment making a catholic joke. Doesn’t make sense to punish only one. It’s a harmless pun, a cardinal, get it? :) Sometimes I wish the “Guidelines lawyers“ weren’t so quick to flag silly jokes. If we changed ‘Catholic’ for ‘Episcopalian’ would it still draw the same reaction?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- shrimp_emoji 6y agoThe avian Vivec[0]/Ardhanarishvara[1] 0: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Vivec https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Vivec 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanarishvara https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanarishvara
- Talanes 6y agoProps for choosing the better of the two Elder Scrolls wikis.
- SV_BubbleTime 6y agoShe’s handsome
- spoonjim 6y agoI thought this was a Catholic cardinal when I first read it and I was like o_O
- dogline 6y agoI snorted. :)
- npsomaratna 6y agoJust woke up, saw this title, rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things—and then realized what type of cardinal this was!
- cal5k 6y agoThe Pope has some 'splainin to do.
- smrq 6y agoI'm glad I'm not the only one!
- jzer0cool 6y agotoo funny
- thanatos519 6y agoCame here to say this.
- spodek 6y agoHard not to wonder if the endocrine disrupting chemicals we haven't banned but are changing sexes of many species, likely including ourselves, contributed.
- Blikkentrekker 6y agoIt's unlikely, since this resulted from an abnormality in early development, before the specimen developed an endoctrinal system. N.b. that bisexual chmærism happens all the time, but tends to go unnoticed so long as both gonads belong to the same sex, which is typically the case, as they are organs located close together. What triggers this is that both gonads belong to different strata of the chimæra, and that thus one develops into male gonads, and the other into female gonads. One's entire body can belong to a female stratum in the chimæra, but so long as only the tissue that forms the gonads belongs to a male stratum, they will develop into testes, and influence the entire female stratum to also develop masculine characteristics, as male and female cells are not differently receptive to sex hormones.
- Karawebnetwork 6y agoThis is not an endocrine disruption but a genetic condition.
- jijji 6y agounfortunately, endocrine disruptors causes genetic conditions that mutate through offspring of future generations [1]... [1] https://www.axios.com/falling-sperm-count-endocrine-disruption-59c8be98-bfad-4e9b-8738-985ece67a21d.html https://www.axios.com/falling-sperm-count-endocrine-disrupti...
- Hitton 6y agoWhy don't you read at least the abstracts of links you post? None of the links says that. One of the links mentions epigenetic changes which can propagate, that's something quite different from mutating genetics.
- 6y ago
- nayuki 6y agoFirst thought: The red mascot of Angry Birds.
- satellite2 6y agoExactly, I wonder if it was their inspiration
- BMorearty 6y agohe/her
- Blikkentrekker 6y agoI always wondered about this strange form if it suggests that one is permitted to have nonstandard combinations of subject and object pronouns. It seems odd to me to list them separately. — certainly, if I see “he” I would assume that the object pronoun is to be “him”, and the genitive and possessive pronouns “his”.
- Karawebnetwork 6y agoWhen you hear a pronoun mix like he/they, that's usually shorthand for "I use both he/him/his and they/them/theirs pronouns."
- Blikkentrekker 6y agoI understand the need for “he/they”; I do not understand the need for “he/him” opposed to simply “he”. If I see “he”, I and everyone else I would gather, would certainly assume that the object pronoun congruates.
- Karawebnetwork 6y agoOh, I understand what you meant now.
- detaro 6y agoI think the main reason is that, especially if used in general text (e.g. a general description field, not something specifically reserved for this), it makes it a bit easier to recognize as pronoun information by always following a distinctive pattern.
- Blikkentrekker 6y agoI would think that most people would understand a Twitter line such as “Algeria/programmer/he/FOSS activist”, which is how it is often phrased with the other things in such fields.
- rossdavidh 6y ago"At first Mr Hill wondered if the bird was leucistic - a term that means the specimen would have a loss of pigmentation in its feathers, but would not be half-female, half-male. But after seeing mobile phone pictures, he suspected it had what is called bilateral gynandromorphism, which is when a bird would have both a functioning ovary and a functioning single testis." So, uh, it would have been interesting if they had mentioned WHY the ornithologist thought it was gynandromorphic rather than leucistic? I'm not an ornithologist but it seems like a pigment mutation is a simpler explanation...
- sp332 6y agoLeucistic cardinals don't just look like female cardinals. https://lostpineslife.com/leucistic-northern-cardinal-winter-birds-little-piney/ https://lostpineslife.com/leucistic-northern-cardinal-winter...
- souprock 6y agoYep. Unless you check the gonads and the DNA on both sides, any explanation will be uncertain. I note that birds use the WZ sex system, which is like the opposite of the mammalian XY sex system. Males are ZZ. Selective silencing of genes on the Z chromosome for dosage compensation could cause spacial variation across the body. We see something like this in the XY sex system with Barr bodies, leading to coloration differences such as those of the calico cat. It's also possible to have a plain old male-male chimera, or a plain old mutation, with the cells in one part failing to produce the proper color.
- elmomle 6y agoI suspect it had to do with sex-associated traits were split down the middle. I'm only an amateur, but I can see that the right side has a male's long tail feathers while the left side does not. I imagine there are other details that would be apparent to an expert.
- frankfrankfrank 6y agoI find your comment rather interesting, because it is rather clear that there are no clear divergences in physical characteristics presented in those pictures that would support your assertion. You are quite literally falling prey to confirmation bias. It’s is essentially impossible to tell that there is any difference with that bird if you look at the image in grey scale. The far more likely explanation is precisely that the process that produces the molecule that makes you perceive the feathers are red was disrupted through mutation or other deformity, or maybe even in a similar condition as vitiligo. Just alone the complexity of something like bifurcated sex in a bird makes it extremely unlikely that that is actually what is going on here. You are far more likely also suffering from the mania of the day regarding sex and gender, which had you rationalizing all things in those terms. Remember Occam’s Razor.
- mjh2539 6y agoThe existence of three-legged dogs has no bearing on the fact that dogs are essentially four-legged.
- aeturnum 6y agoI think it's lovely how accessible high quality photographic equipment has become. Naturalism is much easier when it's not just the "professionals" who have access to high-quality telephoto equipment. These clear, detailed photographs were taken in a rush! Technology is so good that even entry level cameras have sensors that put professional camera sensors from fifteen years ago to shame. It's easy to feel like we are drowning in lazy photography, but the same technology makes things like this possible.
- walrus01 6y agoFor one moment I thought this was about photography of naturism, which is a totally different thing.
- acomjean 6y agoIt’s much easier than in the film days. Great equipment can still give great results. I met this guy on a walk on the north shore of Massachusetts. with a 600mm lens. Much better reach than mine. https://www.flickr.com/photos/bryanbatley/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/bryanbatley/ As opposed to my setting up a GoPro on my moms feeder. Which is fun but not quite the same (she has a normal male cardinal) https://youtu.be/BXMRen6lKEw https://youtu.be/BXMRen6lKEw
- leephillips 6y agoSome fantastic pictures there. 50905348768 is stunning.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- pcurve 6y agoA different cardinal with the same condition, but with more distinct coloring. Half white, half colored https://www.wtxl.com/news/local-news/water-cooler/northern-cardinal-with-rare-abnormality-spotted-in-texas https://www.wtxl.com/news/local-news/water-cooler/northern-c... really interesting!
- walnut_eater 6y agoCould it be the same cardinal at a different time of year? I'm not sure whether or not they are migratory.
- frosted-flakes 6y agoThe colours are reversed, so not likely.
- rsj_hn 6y agoSomeone needs to run high res pics of this through one of the bird recognition phone apps
- kevinmchugh 6y agoMerlin has no trouble with it, unsurprisingly.
- 1-6 6y agoDarn chemtrails changing cardinals (sarcasm)
- Sporktacular 6y agoGood to see some levity in some of these threads.
- derefr 6y agoSo, in what other species can "bilateral gynandromorphism" occur? I'm not having much success googling this. Also, is this just a specific type of genetic mosaicism? I've heard of humans with mosaic DNA (sometimes showing up as patches of alternative skin/hair coloration, etc.); but for some reason I've never heard of humans with mosaic DNA of two different chromosomal sexes.
- buildbot 6y agoI believe humans actually, I just stumbled upon this infographic today : https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/164FE5CE-FBA6-493F-B9EA84B04830354E_source.jpg https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/164FE...
- eyelidlessness 6y agoMost if not all species with biological sex presentation. Binary sex characteristics are an abstraction and extend beyond a specific set of chromosomes (which also present more non-binary configurations). Most humans and other sexed animals bunch up on one side or the other but it’s still a convenience rather than an either/or fact.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mod 6y ago> Not much is known about the unusual phenomenon, but this sexual split has been reported among birds, reptiles, butterflies and crustaceans. From an article linked in another comment: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/09/science/cardinal-sex-gender.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/09/science/cardinal-sex-gend...
- aspaceman 6y agoYou might find more luck with the term “intersex” or in more historical sources, hermaphroditism. From the wiki for mosaic DNA: > In rare cases, intersex conditions can be caused by mosaicism where some cells in the body have XX and others XY chromosomes (46, XX/XY).[12][13] In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, where a fly possessing two X chromosomes is a female and a fly possessing a single X chromosome is a sterile male, a loss of an X chromosome early in embryonic development can result in sexual mosaics, or gynandromorphs. > An example of this is one of the milder forms of Klinefelter syndrome, called 46,XY/47,XXY mosaic wherein some of the patient's cells contain XY chromosomes, and some contain XXY chromosomes. So yes. Looks like it occurs in humans enough to be a big area of study for intersex understanding. There’s a lot of research on sex in this area, but it’s hard to dig through. (And a recommendation for the game “House of Fata Morgana” if you’d like a fictional telling of this history).
- spicyramen 6y agoHe/she
- anoncow 6y agoReading this title made me feel like I was in the Alba universe. (Alba is a heart-warming, pro-nature and fun Apple arcade game.)
- NDizzle 6y agoThere were two giant northern cardinals "playing" (who knows) in my front yard yesterday morning. This was right after the snow started melting, so their bright red coloring really stood out. Maybe it's me getting old, but it's nice to see things like that every now and then.
- Fellshard 6y agoHaving grown up in an area without cardinals, I'm delighted to now live somewhere that has a few of them about in winter. There's a mated pair that keep pretty close together around our house, and they're a delight to watch together.
- pottertheotter 6y agoI grew up in Silicon Valley and had never seen a cardinal in the wild until a couple years ago. Currently in the Midwest and see them in my yard and I love them. My home office has a bay window and there is a bush that backs up to part of it, so I can look into the bush. The cardinals love to go in it and I can watch them from my desk. It really is a delight. I also love goldfinches. I had a bird feeder that only they can eat from and had so much fun watching them. Plus it made it so I can instantly recognize their calls. And the tufted titmouse is the cutest regular I see.
- mprovost 6y agoI always assumed that they lived in Silicon Valley because the sports teams from Stanford are called "Cardinal". But I just looked it up and they're named after the colour, not the bird.
- CryptoPunk 6y agoWe truly are blessed to live in a world with such wonders.
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoHaving some activity in your back yard is definitely worth it, and there's so many people that don't have that because they (have to) live somewhere that's densely urbanized. I had a very bland back yard (green ivies as walls, some other evergreen ground covering), but my girlfriend moved in two years ago and she's a gardener. We've got a diversity of plants now, the soil is alive again, and there's a popular bird feeder, regularly refilled, hanging on the shed now. We sometimes get a dozen birds flitting about there, who then get interrupted by a pair of magpies. But, this whole neighbourhood I live in (very middle class, I'm at the outer edge) has been designed to allow for nature, with lots of semi-wild green spaces dotted around and lots of waterways.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- TedShiller 6y agodiverse birds
- jl6 6y agoCould such a creature reproduce with itself and pass the trait onto its offspring, thereby unevolving sexual reproduction?
- jzer0cool 6y agoAnyone during childhood have to study a particular state? I was given Pennsylvania in grade school. Basically a poster everyone does about state birds, flowers. All I remember about this poster which I had forgotten about until now is the state bird, cardinal. I think it is also the only red bird of this size?
- jhauris 6y agoThe state bird of Pennsylvania is the Ruffed Grouse. The Cardinal is the state bird of a different Commonwealth: Virginia.
- kevinmchugh 6y agoThe cardinal is the most common state bird, representing 7 states
- teknover 6y agoMy cat that I adopted is a hermaphrodite. I am wondering myself how rare it is, or where I might learn more.