oddbiology

See also https://github.com/cmdcolin/oddgenes

This repo is similar to oddgenes in motivation, but I wanted to cover weird biology in general for things, even some genome related things, that didn't entirely fit into oddgenes. Feel free to make PRs for more stuff!

Genomes

Large numbers of chromosomes in a butterfly

"Today I learned that the Atlas blue butterfly has 448–452 chromosomes. The highest number among non-polyploid eukaryotic organisms."

https://twitter.com/Jente_O/status/1653469755569782808

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisms_by_chromosome_count

Seven different "genomes" in a single celled organism

Like we have mitochondrial genome in our cells, this single celled organism has 7 different genomes in it's cell

https://phys.org/news/2023-04-single-celled-alga-harbor-genomes.html

Evolutionary facts

• Mangoes, cashews, and pistachio are related to posion ivy (ref)
• Humans are more closely related to mushrooms than plants (ref)
• Humans are more closely related to a sea urchin than a fly or worm (ref)
• There is no such thing as a tree (woody trees are not 'monophyletic') (ref)
• Oak trees are more related to pumpkins than to pine trees (similar to the above, ref)
• Comb jellies are a sibling group to all other animals (not sponges) (ref)

Convergent evolution examples

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_convergent_evolution