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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2ocfm6i:ineptshieldmaid
replied to your post “seramarias
replied to your post “danceswchopstck
replied to your…”
I think it’s more likely that both pigs and people are ‘skin colour =/= hair colour’ animals. People’s skin tones vary over their bodies but don’t take up the shade of their hair, as far as I know (eg: even very pale people can have very dark hair; very dark people with pale hair).
Pigs are very genetically similar to humans especially in skin - thus their usefulness for animal testing and transplants and the like.
But I do have birthmarks that grow darker hair than the surrounding skin. I mean, I have so little pigment anywhere that it’s hard to notice, and real sparse body hair besides, but I have a huge silver dollar-sized mark on my right ankle, which is about the color of like, normal person skin, a really faint pinkish brown, and grows dark brown hair, while the rest of my leg is approximately the color of paper and grows blondish-brown hair. It’s not that there aren’t variations in the color of my hair all over– lighter on top of my head than at the base of my neck, and I mean, in areas where my body hair grows thicker, it’s also a bit darker, though not much– but it’s notable, at least on that spot. (I have another birthmark on my neck, and again, it’s pretty pale, but I can’t say as I’ve noticed the hair on it at all, though I can’t see it well because it’s kind of behind my jaw in any reflective angles I can get on it. They’re not really dark birthmarks, but they’re big enough, and they’re not moles, which often have strange hair growth associated with them– I have those too, mind!)
I didn’t think to get a photo of my birthmarks. But I have a sample photo of one of the pigs, taken yesterday.
You can see that the hair and the skin underneath have slightly different areas of pigmentation. I feel like that’s pretty clearly what I’m looking at, there. But whether the pig we just processed had markings like that or not, I’m not sure; my only clue was a bit of remaining black hair stubble on one shoulder.
mooserrific replied to your post “seramarias replied to your post “danceswchopstck replied to your…”
FWIW when I raised blue butt pigs, they definitely had blue-black pigmentation on their rumps, and that was still there after we scalded and ran them through the tumbler!
I love that there is such a thing as blue butt pigs. What a name. Oh huh– Googling them is interesting. So one of the related searches google suggested was Old Spot, and that’s what these pigs are. Well, mutts– they’re “heritage stock” hogs, not commercial bred, and they’re a mix of Tamworth and Old Spot and… sort of… assorted. (The red breeding sow, whose name is creatively Red, is pretty much purebred Tamworth, to the point that she has their characteristic kneeling posture when nursing. The others are just Old Spot-ish mutts, including the boar, who I’m actually not sure of his breed at all– but whatever he is, his offspring are universally charming and he’s very sweet-natured, so I can’t complain. I really do like that dumb boar.)
Anyway– inconclusive! Maybe that pigment is more superficial in some than others! Maybe this pig was the one from the last batch that was tricolor, and most of his variegated colors were brown and white, and he only had a little black, so maybe his skin wasn’t black in any places.
All the ones we’ve gotten back before have been cut up entirely, sans skin, so I just don’t have much data.
replied to your post “seramarias
replied to your post “danceswchopstck
replied to your…”
I think it’s more likely that both pigs and people are ‘skin colour =/= hair colour’ animals. People’s skin tones vary over their bodies but don’t take up the shade of their hair, as far as I know (eg: even very pale people can have very dark hair; very dark people with pale hair).
Pigs are very genetically similar to humans especially in skin - thus their usefulness for animal testing and transplants and the like.
But I do have birthmarks that grow darker hair than the surrounding skin. I mean, I have so little pigment anywhere that it’s hard to notice, and real sparse body hair besides, but I have a huge silver dollar-sized mark on my right ankle, which is about the color of like, normal person skin, a really faint pinkish brown, and grows dark brown hair, while the rest of my leg is approximately the color of paper and grows blondish-brown hair. It’s not that there aren’t variations in the color of my hair all over– lighter on top of my head than at the base of my neck, and I mean, in areas where my body hair grows thicker, it’s also a bit darker, though not much– but it’s notable, at least on that spot. (I have another birthmark on my neck, and again, it’s pretty pale, but I can’t say as I’ve noticed the hair on it at all, though I can’t see it well because it’s kind of behind my jaw in any reflective angles I can get on it. They’re not really dark birthmarks, but they’re big enough, and they’re not moles, which often have strange hair growth associated with them– I have those too, mind!)
I didn’t think to get a photo of my birthmarks. But I have a sample photo of one of the pigs, taken yesterday.
You can see that the hair and the skin underneath have slightly different areas of pigmentation. I feel like that’s pretty clearly what I’m looking at, there. But whether the pig we just processed had markings like that or not, I’m not sure; my only clue was a bit of remaining black hair stubble on one shoulder.
mooserrific replied to your post “seramarias replied to your post “danceswchopstck replied to your…”
FWIW when I raised blue butt pigs, they definitely had blue-black pigmentation on their rumps, and that was still there after we scalded and ran them through the tumbler!
I love that there is such a thing as blue butt pigs. What a name. Oh huh– Googling them is interesting. So one of the related searches google suggested was Old Spot, and that’s what these pigs are. Well, mutts– they’re “heritage stock” hogs, not commercial bred, and they’re a mix of Tamworth and Old Spot and… sort of… assorted. (The red breeding sow, whose name is creatively Red, is pretty much purebred Tamworth, to the point that she has their characteristic kneeling posture when nursing. The others are just Old Spot-ish mutts, including the boar, who I’m actually not sure of his breed at all– but whatever he is, his offspring are universally charming and he’s very sweet-natured, so I can’t complain. I really do like that dumb boar.)
Anyway– inconclusive! Maybe that pigment is more superficial in some than others! Maybe this pig was the one from the last batch that was tricolor, and most of his variegated colors were brown and white, and he only had a little black, so maybe his skin wasn’t black in any places.
All the ones we’ve gotten back before have been cut up entirely, sans skin, so I just don’t have much data.
