Pedigree
It is not certainly known how Lämmchen relates to Munk, only that the German Rex mutation - on the same gene as in the Cornish Rex - is recessive, meaning it will only show when both alleles are "Rex", and that Munk is the first thoroughly documented Rex cat, though as stories of "children cuddling curly coated kittens" attest, Rex alleles turn up every now and then. Presumably, Munk sired many offspring with local cats, none of which would have had curly fur as the allele of Munk's straight-haired mates would dominate. In the following years, any curly-haired cats in the Königsberg area went unnoticed or at least were not bred on purpose; the allele nonetheless would have stood good chances to remain in the local cat population, as recessive alleles have a very low probability to disappear entirely.
Read more about this topic: German Rex
Famous quotes containing the word pedigree:
“The pedigree of Honey
Does not concern the Bee,”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
“Science asks no questions about the ontological pedigree or a priori character of a theory, but is content to judge it by its performance; and it is thus that a knowledge of nature, having all the certainty which the senses are competent to inspire, has been attained—a knowledge which maintains a strict neutrality toward all philosophical systems and concerns itself not with the genesis or a priori grounds of ideas.”
—Chauncey Wright (1830–1875)
“The Pedigree of Honey
Does not concern the Bee—
A Clover, any time, to him,
Is Aristocracy—”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)