I don't know much about mutations in animals but I do remember this crazy blue lobster
Now that right there is the bluest creature I've ever seen
YOOOOOOOOO
Do you know that the reason why blue Lobsters are, well, blue is because of a genetic mutation that causes them to create the a LOT of one type of pigment? Yep, apparently that's a thing now.
Also, there's a "blue" mutations in a lot of other animals known as Axanthism, where they are unable to create yellow pigment, and appears blue in normally green animals (Amphibians, reptiles, birds), White in yellow animals and grey in mammals.
Also there's no such thing as an actually blue animal, if we're not counting Mandarinfish. This is because most "blue" animas aren't actually blue: they're brown. The blue colour comes from structural colour, NOT pigments! Mandarinfish, however, does have a blue pigment.
◇Finally made a colour variation chart showing off some fur and mask colours! I did not include any markings (might be it's own post) but I'm pretty proud of it.◇
◇Here's the headcanon post that explains everything. Basically it's just me rambling about headcanons on colour genetics and mutations.◇
One (Long) headcanon post about Masked Ones (Also known as Vaspians) Colour Genetics and Mutation
◇Please note that there's no diagrams in this, but I might possibly make a second post with said diagrams. Also this is a VERY long headcanon post, so do keep that in mind. Also many of the mutations are based roughly on horse and cat coat colours. ◇
◇Also not on-topic but feel free to reblog my art and general Masked Ones headcanon posts, especially with tags! Really the only posts that I don't want people to reblog are RP threads, headcanon posts specifically about Hob and/or Lorelei (Unless it's attached to art/ they're mentioned in a hc post on vaspians in general), OOC posts that aren't any of the above and IC posts that aren't RP starters. However, you can talk about the Hob/ Lorelei headcanons in the notes/ replies, or send an ask about it if that's more comfortable for you. I really do like it when people reblogs my art with tags, even if it's a bit silly sometimes.◇
Masked Ones have two types of genes that determines colour, B (Black/ dark brown) and R (Brown/ Tan/ orange) genes.
There are also two types of the R gene; R1 (Red) and R2 (Yellow), but is generally referred to as R (brown). Both genes express themselves to create a brown coat.
R and B can't become co-dominate, but there are other genes that effect how much of each pigment gene is expressed and generally which one is expressed.
There's a gene that dilutes the main colour (D), a RD vaspian has light brown or light orange fur while a BD has grey fur.
There's also the M gene, usually referred to as Metallic or Champagne, that gives the vaspian an extremely metallic looking yet diluted coat. R1M would be copper/ brass coloured, R2M would be gold while BM would be silver.
There's also the Pr (purple/ blue) gene, which gives the coat a slight bluish/ Purplish tint, similar to Lilac/ lavender/ blue in cats. This doesn't affect both R genes, but affects the B gene, causing bluish dark grey (blue), pinkish light grey (Lilac) and purplish grey (Lavender).
Blue/ Pr1 basically dilutes the black fur, Lilac/ Pr2 kind of mixes the R1 and B genes together and dilutes the result and Lavender/ Pr3 also mixes R1 and B genes together, but doesn't dilute it.
There's also something known as "Double Diluted," or DD for short. This basically a Leucistic vaspian, with white fur and light coloured mask, but black sclera, regular eye colours and possibly some very light markings.
A true albino vaspian would be pure white with very light silver mask and light grey sclera with very light blue iris. They usually suffer from skin and eye issues though.
A melanistic Vaspian would be caused by a mutated B gene, basically causing it to go into overdrive, resulting in black fur, very dark coloured mask and occasionally barely noticeable markings.
Xanthistic/ Yellow vaspians would be yellowish orange with a gold tinted mask, and is caused by faulty R1 AND R2 genes, causing the R1 to barely express itself and the R2 gene to go into overdrive.
Erythristic vaspians would have red fur and reddish mask, and is also caused by faulty R genes, this time the R2 gene is barely expressed while the R1 gene is expressed in overabundance.
A "True blue"/ Axanthistic vaspian would be grayish blue with a blue tinted mask. This is caused by a mutated variant of the BPr1 gene, so they MUST have a blue parent that carries but might not express the Blue gene, especially the mutated version.
There's also other genes that controls markings, like pointed, spotted, dun, piebald, etc.
The "pointed" marking looks similar to the siamese mutation in cats, but is actually more like the roan gene in horses.
As for the characters and my oc (Hob, Lorelei and Aviator), Hob is a pointed grey/ pointed BD with a bit of countershading, Lorelei was a brown/ R vaspian and Aviator is a pointed true blue/ axanthistic/ Mutated BPr1 vaspian.
