Post #1925863
2026-05-02 18:44 UTC
Replies (2)
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@benroyce@mastodon.social 2026-05-02 22:56
@jamesmarshall @leaverou i think you already know, but if not: there are human tetrachromats, they are rare all women because women get two copies of genes related to vision which are on the sex chromosomes: XX, while men get one copy: XY. so only women can get one normal gene, and one with a mutation that shifts one of the three cones, thus giving them tetrachromacy normal people can see 1-10 million colors, such rare women can see 100 million or more https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140905-the-women-with-super-human-vision
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@GLaDTheresCake@todon.nl 2026-05-02 23:06
@jamesmarshall @leaverou Birds are tetrachromatic because their ancestors were larger carnivorous dinosaurs, they didn't lose their colour receptors because they were generally diurnal creatures. Mammals are mostly bichromatic (aside from a few exceptions like apes) because our ancestors were small burrowing creatures that couldn't go out during the day with all the big bird ancestors, so they only came out at night, as such our ancestors lost a large chunk of their unused colour vision.