Since Professor Ceiling Cat is in bed, temporarily laid low by some microorganism (but still working), he thought he’d add some extra biology to the website, to wit: a remarkable case of mimicry in Felis catus. This was sent independently by several readers:
Comments not working…?
b&
They obviously are!
Weird…I had this whole rant about how I can never find the damned critter in these posts, and accused you of torturing us into sharing your misery. Didn’t show up, and WordPress even claimed I was trying to post a duplicate!
Ah well…I think my first guess of the upper left corner might not be right, after all. Lower right, hidden in that shadow?
b&
Snatched from the in between world between your keyboard and the WordPress servers! Must be some belligerent pixie!
This has been happening to me a bit lately too.
Lazarus* resurrects your lost comments & forms data. Saves a lot of hassle retyping.
* Versions for Firefox, Chrome & Safari browsers at the link.
Eewwww! It has a graphic of Jesus’s stick with Jesus’s head still stuck on it.
I had no idea that the ancient Egyptian Ankh was in any manner connected to Jesus or Christianity… 😉
Maybe someone with a geological science background can explain to me how those stone tiles evolved to blend in so well with the cat’s patterning.
I also am mystified by how my black cat disappears on moonless nights. How did darkness become so like his fur color?
A mutation in the melanin synthesis pathway, up-regulating the formation of melanin pigment.
Camouflage, in good French.
In Russia, kitty finds you
Is her name Emperador Dark?
http://bhandarimarbleworld.com/dark-emperador/
I reckon the cat’s human bought the tiles to match his cat. 😀
Or the cat to match his tiles. Or both because he’s a fan of black and orange?
What is the mechanism by which the cat’s fur changes color to adapt to its surroundings? Is it similar to what the octopus uses?
Since cats are land animals, I reckon the mechanism must be similar to what chameleons use.
You make a good argument, but I wonder if this isn’t a learned behavior. Cats and octopi are both known for their superior intelligence – perhaps cats learned to change color by observing octopi.
Unless it was the other way round, of course.
That occurred to me as well. There is no shortage of cat videos on the internet!
I was going to correct your pluralization of octopus but I didn’t want to be a douche-canoe 🙂
Octopodes in my bathtub!
It’s a catmelion! Or maybe an Octopussy?
(I’m sorry, I’ll get my coat…)
Neat housekeeping trick…the servant will never have to sweep the floor. The cat hair will blend right in.
Waaay OT: Dinesh DeSnoozah has been indicted for using straw donors. Bring out the popcorn!
Yeah! The Dinesh thing is interesting *chorkle*:
http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2014/01/23/dinesh-dsouza-indicted-by-eric-holders-doj/
The NYT: http://tinyurl.com/ny472zl
Double your pleasure: conservative AND a perverter of science!
Schadenfreude…
“Straw donors” – at first I thought that someone actually donated straw, but for what? Brain transplantation? Then it dawned on me …
For growing strawberries, of course!
So what’s it supposed to be mimicking? Is this another type of wasp or something? 😉
It looks just like a cat I used to have about 12 years ago. She was also a tortoiseshell – as are almost all cats with that color scheme. The coat mixture is due to the expression of the orange coat gene which lies on the X chromosome. Female cats, which have two X chromosomes, will have one X chromosome randomly inactived such that some cells will express the maternal orange gene, and some the paternal. The X inactivation occurs in a patchwork across their skin resulting in patches of orange and patches without (hence the resulting tortoiseshell pattern.)
Rare instances of male XXY cats, the equivalent karyotype to human Klinefelters, are the only exception to the rule.
Male tortoiseshell and calico cats, very rare, are also sterile.
Thought I posted this earlier. I’ll give it one more try:
Cosplayers threatened with legal action for hotel carpet costume
So the cat could be in breach of copyright? 😉