Ask Ms. Jessica Issue 13 – A world of animals (Patreon)

(The content for Ask Ms. Jessica comes from real questions from real people sent to AskMsJessica@gmail.com)

Dear Ms. Jessica,

If all mutants are humans, why are there so many mutants that look like animals?

A good question. The answer to this comes down to, once again, what we use to determine species. Two beings are of the same species if they can create another offspring which can then go on to create offspring with other members of the same species. A snake mutant and a cow mutant can, in fact, have a child which can then go on to have a child with another mutant or even a normal human. Hence, by scientific definition, all humans are mutants.

However, it is clear that many mutants have traits in common with animals, and exactly why isn’t completely known, but we have a lot of working theories that are supported by quite a bit of evidence.

First of all, our junk DNA includes DNA from, quite literally, every phase of our evolution. That means it includes DNA we had when our genetic line was made up of single celled organisms, fish, lizards, small mammals, and so forth.

However, evolution works like a tree. If the roots are the first biological molecules, you can trace one branch out all the way to humanity. Yet birds, snakes, and other animals will be found on other branches, so we shouldn’t have their DNA in ours, right?

Yes and no. We wouldn’t naturally have DNA from other species in our own, but we do have the DNA of every virus and most bacteria that have infected us and our ancestors throughout the eons. In fact, we have RNA and freefloating DNA in our cells as well. These could be from other species, and as long as our pointer genes tell us to read them, then suddenly we may find ourselves with animal traits.

Animal mutants are rarer than most simply because of our built in immune systems. Remember, any mutation that would harm the body would be targeted by the body’s immune system as an invader and, hopefully, fought off before any harm can be done. We are fighting off minor harmful mutations every day. It’s extremely likely that the body will look at a foreign strand of DNA expanding into a full mutation as an invader. 

This is why sometimes we categorize certain mutants as “compatible” with certain mutations. What this means, is that they already have a DNA sequence somewhere in their genome that looks similar to another DNA sequence. Someone can, say, by random chance, share 99% of a junk DNA sequence with a vital DNA sequence in a snake. If they then mutated and started reading that sequence, their body would be less likely to look at it as a threat, since it had been in their body since birth to begin with. Once again, this is largely random, or at the very least, based on your parents.

While animal mutants might have biology similar to some animals, cold blooded lizard mutants, spider mutants that can spin webs, so on so forth, genetically they are still human. For example, a normal non mutant human has 46 chromosomes. A dog, on the other hand, has 78. A mutant who appears to be a dog girl still only has 46 chromosomes. It’s just that non-mutated humans are only reading 1% of their genetic information and mutants are reading more, and some of that dog-girls junk DNA in that leftover 99% is similar to some of the vital DNA in the 1% of the 78 chromosomes that a normal dog has.

It’s enough to make your head spin. It’s a lot of numbers and a lot of random chance. It might seem like magic, but remember that everything that we are, and more importantly, everything that literally every other living thing on the planet is, is made up of just four molecules in different patterns. Shift just a few around and you are coding for a completely different being. Humans share about 90 percent of their DNA with mice and cats, 84 percent with dogs, 80 percent with cattle and other hooved animals, 65 percent with chickens, 60 percent with flies and some other insect, and 50 percent with potatoes and bananas. It’s not that hard to believe that these similarities might eventually lead to mutations that mirror our relatives in the animal kingdom.

Or plant kingdom I suppose. I haven’t seen a banana or potato mutant myself, but I am sure they are out there somewhere. I have seen mutants with flowers and vines as part of their anatomy though. Heck, potatoes have the ability to sprout small clones of themselves from their eyes, duplicating parts of even wholes of themselves if subjected to trauma. So maybe all those multi-limb mutants out there were potato mutants all along!

Stay curious!

Dr. Jessica Park

AskMsJessica@gmail.com