Photos That Prove There Are No Rules When It Comes To Genetics

Genetics is a science, and sometimes when you look at a family it's very clear to see that they're related, but other times something goes a little wonky in the gene pool and you're born with 6 fingers on each hand!

Some people are born looking exactly like their father, whereas others are born with an eye that's two different colors, and there's nothing they can do but embrace it.

Like Father Like Son

1992 to 2017 husband and child at same age
Photo Credit: Reddit / rayzzles
Photo Credit: Reddit / rayzzles

We're not convinced that these aren't the exact same kid, but apparently this is a father and son photo taken more than twenty years apart standing in the bed of the same truck.

So cool!

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A Strong Family Bond

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family of albino indians from india
Photo Credit: Imgur / DrPicklee
Photo Credit: Imgur / DrPicklee
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Even when both parents are albino, the chances of their children being born albino is only 1 in 4, so the fact that this whole family from India was born albino and not just as a carrier of the gene proves how strong their genes are.

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We wonder what their children will look like!

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He'll Never Know The Joys Of Finger Gloves

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dad with 6 fingers on each hand
Photo Credit: Reddit / the_cozy_one
Photo Credit: Reddit / the_cozy_one
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This man has 6 fingers on each of his hands and his son couldn't resist sharing it with the internet.

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Both the father and son have 12 toes as well, and the son was born with 6 fingers on each hand but had them surgically removed when he was a child. Polydactyly clearly runs in this family.

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Embracing The Obvious

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birthmark on brazilian model's face
Photo Credit: Instagram / @marianamendes.m
Photo Credit: Instagram / @marianamendes.m
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Brazilian model Mariana Mendes has a fairly noticeable birthmark on her face and her goal is to use it to question beauty standards throughout the industry.

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The type of birthmark she has comes from a condition that effects less than 1% of infants born worldwide, so she's way more unique than one in a million.

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Cruella De Vil Vibes

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woman with vitiligo on eyebrows and eyelashes
Photo Credit: Instagram / @v_mariie
Photo Credit: Instagram / @v_mariie
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Vitiligo is a condition that most often causes the loss of pigmentation in patches of skin anywhere on a person's body, but can also affect pigmentation in someone's hair, which is what this girl is showing off.

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Marie has vitiligo on just the eyebrows and eyelashes on the right side of her face, and she's proud to show it off in pictures.

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Family Birthmark Game On Point

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baby and mom born with same birth mark in hair
Photo Credit: Instagram / @emma.christine.johnson
Photo Credit: Instagram / @emma.christine.johnson
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This woman was born with a birthmark in the form of a white spot at the front of her hairline, and much to her surprise her daughter was born with a very prominent one as well!

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Even her son has a little spot of gray/white at the front.

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He's Two Good Boys In One

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Bull chimera dog with two breeds in one
Photo Credit: Reddit / keyboardcomrade
Photo Credit: Reddit / keyboardcomrade
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This dog, named Bull, is what's known as a chimera, or an animal that is genetically made of two animals. Rather than a mutt, he is like a set of twins fused into one dog.

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In his case, Bull is half yellow lab, half black lab, and all good boy.

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Time For A Riddle

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identical twins marry identical twins and give birth to twins
Photo Credit: Reddit / Available_Subject
Photo Credit: Reddit / Available_Subject
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If a set of female identical twins marries a set of male identical twins, and those couples each have children, will they give birth to twins? The answer, in this case, is yes.

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These couples each gave birth to identical twins of their own, which means that genetically, their children are both cousins and siblings because of their identical makeup.

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Two Sides Of The Same Coin

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brazilian albino twins mara and lara
Photo Credit: Instagram / @lara_mara_sheila
Photo Credit: Instagram / @lara_mara_sheila
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Brazilian albino twins Mara and Lara have been making serious strides in the modeling world after they were photographed by famed artist Vinicius Terranova.

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The pair are one of very few models working professionally in the industry, joining the likes of Shaun Ross and Diandra Forrest.

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You're Definitely Related

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side by side comparison of granddaughter and grandmother photos
PhotoC Credit: Imgur / ayyradd
PhotoC Credit: Imgur / ayyradd
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One Reddit user needed to share a side-by-side comparison of herself and her dad's biological mother after seeing the uncanny resemblance she had, and everyone else was pretty impressed.

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If she could manage that hairstyle and to find those clothes, it'd be hard to tell them apart!

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He Could Rule The World

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cat with a thumb on its paw
Photo Credit: Reddit / kotasky_
Photo Credit: Reddit / kotasky_
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This woman on Reddit couldn't resist showing off her cat's polydactyl talent.

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Due to the location of his extra "finger" he can form an adorable fist and it functions as if he has a thumb. According to the Reddit user, he can absolutely pick things up and she always knows who is guilty when her things go missing.

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The Recessive Gene Jackpot

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ginger with two different colored eyes
Photo Credit: Reddit / sturgio_garcia
Photo Credit: Reddit / sturgio_garcia
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As her brother said, this girl is a "genetic masterpiece" considering that she's a red head and she has heterochromia - meaning her eyes are two different colors.

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She really hit the recessive gene jackpot.

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Sisterly Bonding

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sisters with connected toes
Photo Credit: Reddit / IanthegeekV2
Photo Credit: Reddit / IanthegeekV2
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These sisters discovered that they both have syndactyly connected toes, a condition that doesn't really affect anything but can be a little funny to look at, so they got matching tattoos to celebrate their malformation!

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So wonderful!

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She's Still Got Em!

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child with pointy ears
Photo Credit: Reddit / tootsietat
Photo Credit: Reddit / tootsietat
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When her niece was two this Reddit user posted a photo showing off her pointy "elf" ears and most commenters said she'd grow out of them so she wanted to update everyone.

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"4 years old and my niece still hasn't grown out of her elf ears. Pointy as ever!"

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Father Of Dragons

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son who shared a picture of father's 'reptile' eye
Photo Credit: Reddit
Photo Credit: Reddit
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This man has what his son described as "reptile eye" and he was curious if anyone knew anything about it, so he posted to Reddit because why not? Turns out it's called Coloboma and if you have a more severe mutation of it, it can actually cause blindness.

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In this man's case, he just gets to look like a dragon, so it's a win for him.

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Why So Blue?

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lobster with genetic mutation
Photo Credit" Reddit / CarmineFields
Photo Credit" Reddit / CarmineFields
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Something interesting about a lobster with this kind of mutation is that even though they're blue, once you go to cook them they will turn red like a normal lobster!

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Only albino or "crystal" lobsters don't turn red.

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Melanie's Making A Career Of Her Condition

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model with ectodermal dysplasia
Photo Credit: Instagram / @melaniegaydos
Photo Credit: Instagram / @melaniegaydos
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Melanie Gaydos is a model who suffers from ectodermal dysplasia, which is a rare genetic condition that prevents things like her teeth, cartilage or bones from developing fully.

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While she does modeling, she's best known for her role in Insidious: The Last Key.

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This 6 Ft 10" Tall Model

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resenkhorloo bud posing next to her friend who's qutie a bit shorter
@rentsenkhorloo_bud / Instagram
@rentsenkhorloo_bud / Instagram
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Meet Rentsenkhorloo Bud, a 6'10" Model who boasts the second longest pair of legs in the world.

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Despite her obviously amazing statue, she has no interest in being part of the Guinness Book Of World Records. More power to you girl!

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This Literal Giant

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man laying down, quite a bit bigger than trainer
Reddit
Reddit
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People come in all shapes and sizes, we know that all too well.

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This man appears to be getting an examination of some kind. Thanks to these too we can really see a comparison of how big he is!

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Sharing Her Story

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carly findlay author with Ichthyosis
Photo Credit: Instagram / @carlyfindlay
Photo Credit: Instagram / @carlyfindlay
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Australian writer and activist Carly Findlay was born with a rare condition called Ichthyosis which causes red, flaky, waxy or scaly-looking skin, but Carly turned her condition into an opportunity to become a disability and body-positive activist!

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Great job Carly!

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Seeing Double

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iris split color
Photo Credit: Imgur
Photo Credit: Imgur
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If you have heterochromia iridis, it means you have two different colored eyes and it's relatively rare, but having sectoral heterochromia is even rarer. As the name implies, it means one iris is split into two color sections.

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It typically only occurs in one iris and the other eye would be a solid color.

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We See No Difference

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face comprised of half mother half daughter
Photo Credit: Imgur / picstempacct
Photo Credit: Imgur / picstempacct
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A photographer performed a series of photos where they meshed photos of family members together to see their resemblance, and with this mother-daughter, it's hard to even tell that there are two people in the photo!

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Marie-Pier, 18, is the left half and N'sire, 29, is the right half, but honestly, you could've fooled us.

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Who Needs Two Joints?

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pinky finger with only one joint
Photo Credit: Reddit / moki69
Photo Credit: Reddit / moki69
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How do you even discover that your pinky bends like this?

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You stub your pinky on a door frame expecting it to hurt a lot and then you realize that you're totally fine and that you have some seriously weird bending fingers.

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There's No Denying It

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husband and daughter comparison
Photo Credit: Imgur / LisaLove87
Photo Credit: Imgur / LisaLove87
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One woman found the picture on the left of her husband being held by his mom, and was pretty shocked to see just how similar her daughter looks like her dad in the photo on the right.

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Maury Povich determined you definitely are the father.

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Not-So-Identical Twins

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twins who were born different skin colors
Photo Credit: Reddit / kangawhat
Photo Credit: Reddit / kangawhat
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Identical twins Kian and Remee surprised their parents and just about everyone else when they were born one minute apart from each other but one was white and one was black.

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Their parents are each mixed race with a white mother and a black father, and they managed to get the rarest possibility from their genes.

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Better Get Hopping

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albino katydid
Photo Credit: Reddit / HamiltonJr
Photo Credit: Reddit / HamiltonJr
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While it may look pretty, this katydid has something called erythrism, which is like albinism except it causes an excess of red pigment and it makes it incredibly hard to camouflage because they're pink.

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They can exclusively hide in pink flowers, basically.

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Double The Uniqueness

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person with purple eyes who has albinoism
Photo Credit: Reddit / Sorranne
Photo Credit: Reddit / Sorranne
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While albinism is a rare condition, being an albino born with purple eyes is even rarer because less than 15% of albinos are born with violet eyes.

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So basically, you're doubly special if you're in that group.

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A Little Misaligned, But Still Functional

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knuckles that are pushed back further
Photo Credit: Reddit / OstrichBakedGhoul
Photo Credit: Reddit / OstrichBakedGhoul
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Don't freak out, this person has fingers too, but the focus here is their fist.

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While their fingers have normal function, the knuckles on their two middle fingers are "genetically pushed back" so they're a little misaligned.

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Split Coloring But One Loving Personality

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cat with multiple breed colorings
Photo Credit: Reddit / BunniBlossoms
Photo Credit: Reddit / BunniBlossoms
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After rescuing a cat who gave birth and then ran away from their home to continue her life elsewhere, one family was left with a kitten who had the half coloring of her mom and they said it serves as a nice memory of their old cat.

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That's a sweet way to commemorate a memory.

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"They're Called Spoon Nails."

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husband with inverted finger nails
Photo Credit: Reddit / TorchIt
Photo Credit: Reddit / TorchIt
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This man has what his wife lovingly describes as "spoon nails" which is a less scientifically official way of describing his inverted fingernails.

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Apparently, his mother and his grandfather on his mom's side both have them as well.

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Check That One Off The List

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guinea pig with checkered fur
Photo Credit: Reddit
Photo Credit: Reddit
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While working at PetSmart, someone came across a guinea pig who had a near-perfect checkered pattern on his belly.

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Guinea pigs commonly have tri-colored patterns, but it's rarer to find ones that only have a two-color checker.

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You've Been Spotted

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jaglion - jaguar lion
Photo Credit: Reddit / spacejockey8
Photo Credit: Reddit / spacejockey8
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Does it look like something is off with this guy but you just can't quite place it? It's because he's a jaglion: his dad is a jaguar and his mom is a lion!

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His name is Tsunami, and he & his sister Jahzara are thought to be the only jaglions in the world.