Name: Josh
Status: Student
Grade: 6-8
Location: N/A
Country: United States
Date: January 2007
Question:
How does heredity explain why you do not look like a rhino?
Replies:
You inherit your DNA from your parents so you look like them and not a
rhino.
Ron Baker, Ph.D.
Your parentage explains why you look the way you do. Your genes have the
body plan for your characteristics and they are set up to develop a human.
Steve Sample
Because you didn't inherit the instructions in your DNA to be a rhino.
The sequence of letters in your DNA "spells out" what you are
supposed to look like. Rhinos and humans have different DNA
sequences. It's the same as if you were reading an instruction manual
in letter of the alphabet-even though the same letters are used for
both, the order of the letters is different and therefore the
instructions are different.
Vanhoeck
NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.
