Now, you would think most of these animals to be super animals that have some outrageous power that makes them a mix between two or maybe even several animals. You actually aren't that far off from reality! Believe it or not, with today's technology, there are some weird and crazy looking animals out there.
Take a look at these animals. Can you guess which ones are real and which ones are fake?
Glow-in-the Dark Cats?
Web-Spinning Goats?
Dog + Lion = Dolion
Cat + Lemur = Lemurat
Umbuku Lizard
Of course not all of these animals are real. But you'd be surprised to finds out which ones actually do exist. Only two of these five bizarre animals are real; the cats and goats.
Yes, there are actual cats that glow in the dark. They glow-in-the-dark because a glow-in-the-dark gene is inserted into their genomes with flourescence. And the web-spinning goat? The goat does not actually spin webs like spiders do. Their genetically modified milk is what can be used to produce web-like material.
As you can see, animals are genetically modified to possess odd characteristics and abilities. Some are unpredictable and you wouldn't even think they are real.
To be honest, the reason I stopped to read this post was because of the pictures; they looked very interesting! I was surprised to see that some of them actually were real. It's amazing to see how much science can really do. I had a feeling the glow-in-the-dark cats might have been real, as I've heard of scientists injecting a gene for fluorescence into animals before; in fact, I did it with bacteria in high school. But the web-spinning goat wasn't something that I anticipated. And the idea that its milk is what is genetically modified makes you start to think about all of the possible helpful implications genetic modification might bring, especially in the field of medicine. Genetically modifying animals, however, are still looked at warily, but if the animals are treated fairly and research is done for progressing health, genetic modification may be very helpful in the long run. This post really got me thinking, and it's really interesting to see some of the things that can be done.
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