In the cheetah population, inbreeding has not only become the mainstream choice, but also facilitated the mutation evolution of the genome, which is in stark contrast to other organisms' concerns about inbreeding.
Why do most animals not choose inbreeding? How did cheetahs complete their biological evolution through inbreeding?
Inbreeding can lead to disasters and species extinction.
In order to avoid genetic defects in offspring, humans have even explicitly stipulated by law that relatives cannot get married and have children.
Although animals do not write this code, they are also silently following it.
So why don't almost all animals choose inbreeding?
In fact, both dominant and recessive genes exist in all animals. When there is a significant difference in the genetic sequence of parents, dominant genes are more likely to be inherited, which is not harmful to the health of offspring.
However, if the parents are close relatives, the pathogenic factors in the recessive genes may appear, and the offspring are prone to inheriting the pathogenic genes, leading to congenital disabilities or other defects.
In the early days, the royal aristocracy often chose to marry close relatives in order to maintain their bloodline purity.
However, this also leads to difficulties in producing qualified offspring, although maintaining the dominant position of the family, the children are mostly abnormal.
So, not choosing inbreeding has a significant impact on organisms. However, cheetahs seem to have broken through this limitation.
Cheetahs are well-known mammals known for their streamlined body shape, extremely long tail, and amazing sprinting ability.
It is understood that adult cheetahs can weigh 50-70 kilograms, but their running speed can reach 120 kilometers per hour.
However, what is most striking is not only its rapid running, but also its preference for inbreeding.
An American animal geneticist and his team conducted genetic testing on nearly 50 cheetahs, and the results showed that their genetic sequences were extremely similar, even highly overlapping in cheetahs separated by thousands of miles.
Therefore, scholars believe that all cheetahs in the entire habitat may be traced back to the same ancestor.
Inbreeding can lead to offspring defects, but cheetahs seem to have changed this situation and created a new evolutionary path.
According to archaeological research, the cheetah population suffered heavy damage during a certain ice age, resulting in nearly 90% of cheetah deaths.
Most of the surviving cheetah populations have migrated to Africa, resulting in a sharp decline in population size and an increased probability of inbreeding.
Under normal circumstances, inbreeding can lead to species extinction, but cheetahs seem to have chosen a different path.
Their DNA undergoes mutations, increasing the diversity of gene sequences and reducing the impact of inbreeding on offspring.
Under the pressure of survival, cheetahs have also evolved astonishing running speed and passed this talent on to their offspring through inbreeding.
Therefore, it is not cheetahs who choose genes, but genes that determine their development.
However, despite breaking through biological limitations, cheetahs still face survival difficulties today.
Factors such as poaching and urban development threaten the survival of wild cheetahs.
According to statistics, the number of wild cheetahs in Africa is less than 10000, of which nearly 10% are artificially bred.
In 2014, cheetahs were listed as endangered species.
The future of cheetahs is still influenced by both genes and humans, and it remains to be seen whether they can evolve again.
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