Ligers are known in popular culture for being pretty much Napoleon Dynamite's favorite animal, but a lesser known fact is that the lion-tiger hybrids are actually the largest of the big cats, more massive than either parent due to a quirk of genetics. As Razib explains on Gene Expression, parental imprinting is responsible for the difference in size: Imprinted genes from female lions usually keep "largeness" genes from the males in check, but female tigers have had no selective pressure to evolve such genes. The resulting offspring of a tiger mother and a lion father are the oversized ligers. For lovers of big cats, Brian Switek also offers some of his favorite feline photos on Laelaps.
- Why ligers are huge on Gene Expression
- "Big Kitties" on Laelaps
- Liger, Liger, Burning Bright ... on Living the Scientific Life
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Believe it or not, tigers are not the largest big cat. Ligers are (you might remember ligers from Napoleon Dynamite). Why? It has to do with the weirdness that occurs when you hybridize across two lineages which have been distinctive for millions of years, but not so long so as not to be able to…
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