Mongolian Gerbils

1994/02/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Zoologia

Mongolian gerbils are small and elegant rodents. Females practice more than one breeding each time, but depending on the location of fetuses inside the uterus, the morphology of the breeding and its behavior in the elderly is different. In fact, female fetuses between two fetuses behave like the male because of the testosterone that crosses the fetal membrane. The phenotype of these females is also not the same as that of females without testosterone effect.

However, curiosity does not end for that: females who receive testosterone start with more males in their offspring. In addition, females born among these males are also “contaminated” with testosterone and the maternal phenomenon is constantly repeated. Therefore, germ females inherit the phenotype (genotype signs in a given medium) from their mother, regardless of whether or not they have a machista effect.

In Mongolian jerboys, isn't that transmitting the characteristics obtained? That has been the thesis that has long bothered orthodox evolutionists. According to orthodox evolutionists, any characteristic of the phenotype was necessarily a consequence of the modification of genotypes. In the case of gerbils, however, there are no changes in the genotype, but the transmission of phenotypes. Phenotype is transmitted by inheritance.