Chimera

Picture taken from http://mmadnd.chat.ru/chimera.gif


Something to share before I begin....

"The Chimera was a monstrous fire-breathing creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that terminated in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her spine.

The Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra. The term chimera has also come to mean more generally, an impossible or foolish fantasy." (wiki)




After reading the description above, you would think it was impossible for this to occur...But,think again!

There is a field in genetics which study this type of condition albeit in a different way that the chimera is proclaimed.

"Typically seen in zoology (but also discovered to a rare extent in human beings), a chimera is an animal that has two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated in different zygotes; if the different cells emerged from the same zygote, it is called a mosaicism.

Chimeras are formed from four parent cells (two fertilized eggs or early embryos fuse together) or from three parent cells (a fertilized egg is fused with an unfertilized egg or a fertilized egg is fused with an extra sperm). Each population of cells keeps its own character and the resulting animal is a mixture of tissues." (wiki)

Further reading tells you about some strange cases that happen in humans....

"EXPLAIN this. You are a doctor and one of your patients, a 52-year-old woman, comes to see you, very upset. Tests have revealed something unbelievable about two of her three grown-up sons. Although she conceived them naturally with her husband, who is definitely their father, the tests say she isn't their biological mother. Somehow she has given birth to somebody else's children...."
(http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18024215.100-the-stranger-within.html)

Further reading tells you that this is common but less seen in life due to unspecific screening.[cells in your arm may be composed of cells of different DNA(small number) that comes from your mom or your twin which was never born(talk about scary)]

However, on a positive note, you can really say that your mom still lives in your heart (some of her cells are sometimes transported there from the womb) and you must respect her cause there are some parts of her in you and vice versa. So remember the mother's day gift and treat your mom nicely.

Hope you enjoyed this.