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From: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Polydactylity (Was Re: 4- and 5- leaved clovers)
Message-ID: <207@gethen.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Oct-87 16:38:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: gethen.207
Posted: Mon Oct  5 16:38:55 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Oct-87 07:47:33 EDT
References: <4066@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <628@cfa203.cfa250.harvard.EDU> <1722@gryphon.CTS.COM> <2437@calmasd.GE.COM>
Reply-To: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren)
Organization: Sci-Fido - Unix in Oakland
Lines: 24

In article <2437@calmasd.GE.COM> jnp@calmasd.GE.COM (John Pantone) writes:
>(Richard Sexton) writes:
>> I was at my brother in laws house and there was a white momma cat with
>> 7 toes on each foot. Sort of like an extra half foot growing out the inside
>> of the paw.
>
>Polydactyly (many (too many) "fingers") is a common "deformity" among some
>breeds of cat.  Sorry, don't know which breed.  In fact, it's not all that
>uncommon among humans either.

This particular kind of polydactylity (what looks like almost an extra paw
growing alongside the normal one) in cats can be traced back to a single
cat, brought into this country from England some time ago (50 years?).
It seems to be a slightly dominant trait, in that it does tend to re-
appear in succeeding generations, but not always.  Interestingly, there
also seem to be two other characteristics that are loosely linked with
polydactylity in cats - increased intelligence and shorter lifespan.


-- 
----------------
Michael J. Farren      "... if the church put in half the time on covetousness
unisoft!gethen!farren   that it does on lust, this would be a better world ..."
gethen!farren@lll-winken.arpa             Garrison Keillor, "Lake Wobegon Days"