Sheep colors part 2: color vs patterns (black & brown vs grey and white)

Although it seems completely counterintuitive, black and brown are a wholly different category of color from grey and white. black and brown are actually two different pigments. grey and white are actually patterns. the genes that govern grey and white are not involved in making pigment, but rather in where the pigment is made. they govern the decisions all over the body about whether color is made or not. Let’s take an example in humans. some of our melanocytes make a lot of pheomelanin, but only in our lips (which is why lips are redder than the rest of our skin), nipples and freckles. Samoyed dogs make black pigment, but only in their eyes, foot pads and noses, and doberman dogs make black pigment only on the other parts of their bodies, with their inner legs and bellies being brown. Sheep can get even more colorful, with bands of color on their faces, or down their backs, or distributed in ways that camoflauge them from preditors…………..to be continued