Yellow turtle discovered in India, the result of genetic anomaly

Steph Deschamps / July 24, 2020

No, this is not a new member of the famous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but a real turtle. On the other hand, its body and its shell are entirely yellow. No one had ever seen this and certainly from the farmer who discovered it in the small village of Sujanpur, in eastern India. But this amazing pigmentation is actually the result of a genetic disease.

According to Siddhartha Pati, the executive director of the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity in India, this color is due to a form of albinism: "It is a congenital disorder which is characterized by a partial absence. or complete with tyrosine pigment. " The turtle has since been released into the wild.

In 2016, an albino turtle was also found on an Australian beach, but the latter was white.

As a reminder, albinism is a genetic anomaly causing a weak or complete absence of production of pigments in the skin, eyes and hair. In humans, albinism is often characterized by gray hair.

Credit : RTBF