What our baby may look like...dominant vs. recessive.

I caught just a bit of this week's This American Life...it was about predictions for 2010. There was a segment with a guy trying to figure out what his daughter would look like based on what he and his wife look like. A friend of his makes the comment that although we know dominance in genetics it's not cut and dry because our traits have inter-bred for so long.

If I remember correctly even though I have brown eyes our child could have blue eyes because I may carry some of the recessive gene..Staci's eyes are blue. But like the guy (I forget his name) in the segment I can use the dominant/recessive genes as a guide.

 (Left: Staci, Right: Me with my grandfather (I'm the shorter one).

So if we go on straight dominance/recessiveness of genes here is what our baby will be like, unless noted the traits I pull out are dominant:

• Brown-eyed (me)
• Dark hair (me...although I had blond hair when I was young. I also had, and still have, sexy shoulders)
• Curly hair (Staci...maybe wavy because that is heterozygous)
• Full head of hair (both)
• Widow's peak (me....and I love it)
  
• No dimples (both but recessive)
• No freckles (both but recessive)
• No cleft in chin (both)
  
• Broad lips (I don't know what the specs for broad and thin are but I think mine are broad and Staci's are thinner)
  
• Unattached earlobes (me)
• Almond shaped eyes (both)
  
• Normal vision – sightedness (me)...Staci is near-sighted but that is recessive...I just got glasses this week but it's for minor astigmatism.
• Normal vision – not color blind or night blind (both)
• Only 5 fingers (both...apparently six fingers is dominant)
• Not double jointed (both but recessive)
• Immune to poison Ivy (me...I think I'm immune...Staci thinks she's had it)
• Will be able to roll it's tongue (me)
• Will be able to fold it's tongue (both but recessive)

One learning here is that I'm chock full of dominant genes while Staci has a bunch of recessive ones. It helps to paint the picture a bit but not knowing the gender still makes it hard. I find the 6 finger thing to be interesting. If it was dominant wouldn't more people have 6 fingers?  That makes me start thinking about evolution...are we evolving into a 6 finger species? Probably not.

I have an extra bone in my ankle called an accessory bone...I know because it lead to my feet hurting like a bitch which lead to some toe surgery a couple years back...the bone is still there. When I was talking to my doctor about why it's there he wondered if it's a vestigial bone or something we are evolving into...his guess was vestigial because it offers nothing good for how we walk.

I would have been more excited if it's where we are evolving to. Not sure if it's dominant, recessive or even genetic...I just know I hope our baby get's Staci's normal feet...but maybe a bit bigger though...she wears a size 4.5 show and it sucks for her when she goes shoe shopping.

Want to figure out what traits your baby will have? Check out the two links below.
http://www.blinn.edu/socialscience/LDThomas/Feldman/Handouts/0203hand.htm
http://faculty.southwest.tn.edu/jiwilliams/Human_Traits.htm