Science fiction has done a great job at making the concept of genetic mutation so frightening that even thinking of it happening in real life following a nuclear disaster might send chills down the spine.

Well, genetic mutations do happen in real life without it being an apocalyptic Fallout scenario. Results might vary, but it can just be an aesthetic change making you look unique and cool.

Animals are no different in that regard. Folks all over the internet share the one-of-a-kind genetic mutations their pets were born with, and Bored Panda has gathered them all into this neat little list, so enjoy!

#1 Frankenkitten The Four-Eared, One-Eyed Cat From Victoria, Australia

Image credits: frank_n_kitten

#2 Duo Is A Special Kitten With Two Faces On One Head. Duo Has A Condition Commonly Known As “Janus”, Also Known As Craniofacial Duplication

Image credits: duotwofacedcat

#3 Meet Cinnamon. She Was Born With Ears That Look Like Cinnamon Rolls

Image credits: klpack11

So, a genetic mutation is when DNA—that thing that determines who we are as organisms and how we go about being organisms—is replicated and something wrong happens. An error.

In simple terms, DNA is made up of parts that, when put together, determine one thing or another about our bodies. However, sometimes, the parts can get mixed up, additional parts might be added, or subtracted, this leading to mutations.

#4 I Met A 14-Year-Old Dog With Vitiligo This Morning

Image credits: smokestacks

#5 Maximus Has Some Crazy Whiskers

Image credits: Felspawn

#6 This Is Heidi. She Has Vitiligo

Image credits: vinkulelu

There are a handful of types of genetic mutations in animals. Without getting super nerdy, the DNA code (or parts thereof) can get mixed up in multiple ways: it can get deleted or inserted, duplicated, inverted, frame-shifted, among other ways. These can affect individual cells or entire chromosomes depending on the circumstances, thus leading to varying degrees of mutation.

#7 I Met A Dog With 2 Noses At Work

Image credits: cainneigh

#8 A Highlander Came In Today. 24 Toes In Total

Image credits: rupkin

#9 This Is Mr. Poppins. He Has No Teeth

Image credits: William_George

So, how do animals get their mutations in the first place?

These can happen throughout the life of an animal or can be inherited from a parent. If a cell is affected by a mutation during life, it’s likely that derivative cells from it will also carry the mutation. In this case, it often only affects a small amount of cells, but inherited mutations, however, will affect all of the offspring cells.

#10 Meet Quasimodo, The Dog With The Short Spine. Even If You’re Different You Can Still Enjoy Life

Image credits: QuasiTheGreat

#11 Meet Ivy, The Pitbull With Short Spine Syndrome. She Is A 3-Year-Old Queen Now

Image credits: frogqueenivy

#12 A Puppy With One Eye, 2 Tongues, And No Nose

Image credits: Amie de Martin

Mutations are spontaneous. They happen during the process of replicating DNA. And since the body goes through quite a bit of these throughout the day, errors are bound to happen.

Now, the body does have mechanisms to deal with these errors. The biological mechanism that creates DNA also checks it for errors and if something is wrong, it attempts to fix it. I say attempts because it’s not always successful.

#13 Roo Was Born With A Condition Called Radial Hypoplasia Which Means That His Front Forelegs Are Abnormally Short And Twisted

This is where it all began, well one of his new beginnings anyway. As a tiny kitten (prior to this pic) someone witnessed someone else throwing something into a lake in a plastic bag and heard meowing. The person saved Roo and brought him to animal control where Florida Humane Society took him to treat him and find him a home.

 

Apparently, someone didn’t think he deserved to live because he was different. He doesn’t use his right front leg to put weight on so he is more or less a tripod cat when he walks and he stands in the position you see here. We think there is less bone in that right leg than the left leg since it never touches the ground. He was otherwise healthy and required no special treatment as cats born with this adapt very well to getting around having known life no other way. He was adopted out not long after this photo was taken.

Image credits: roothekangaroocat

#14 My Dalmatian Is The Size Of A Corgi. He’s The Only One From His Litter To Have Chondrodysplasia (Canine Dwarfism)

Image credits: dogememes_dinoruby

#15 First Time In My Life I Saw A Horse With A Mustache

Image credits: UniqueUsername_orNot

If you’re wondering how the body does repairs, there are essentially 3 ways to go about it: [1] direct reversal, whereby enzymes directly undo the damage done by the DNA-creation chemical reaction; [2] excision repair, whereby the enzymes quite literally remove the wrong part to be replaced by the right one; and [3] double-stranded break repair, which is when a whole chromosome breaks into two, essentially, and the body fixed that.

#16 Injury At Birth Left Rae With Only The Right Ear. As She Grew, It Migrated To The Top Of Her Head, Making Her A Unicorn

Image credits: goldenunicornrae

#17 This Kitten From Sonoma Was Born With 24 Toes

Image credits: roseygrl98

#18 Here’s A Pic Of My Chonky Rottweiler, Kaiser. He Was Born With Gigantism So He Was Absurdly Large As A Puppy And Is Still Large

Image credits: WraithKLM

How much something will be affected by a mutation depends on the size and location.

The effects of germ line mutations, for instance, can vary from neutral to detrimental to beneficial.

#19 Meet Mochi, Our Adorable Rescue Kitty With Three Legs, No Ears, And No Tail

Image credits: mochi.boston

#20 My Cat Olaf Has Heterochromia (One Green Eye, One Blue Eye) And When Photographed With A Flash On He Only Gets Red Eye In His Blue Eye

Image credits: darkecho1900

#21 My Cat Has Wide-Spaced Eyes

Image credits: Wolvii_404

If the effect is neutral, this means that the mutation affected the DNA that has no function or the part that doesn’t affect amino acid sequences.

In serious cases, mutations can limit or completely destroy an animal’s ability to survive or reproduce. Marfan syndrome, for example, can affect cattle, specifically their heart and blood vessels, the skeleton and muscle tissue, and even cause ocular diseases.

#22 It’s A Very Weird Webbing In My Cat’s Eye (The Vet Has Checked It, Nothing Harmful)

Image credits: NoPay8943

#23 The Absolute Ears On This Bunny

#24 Dog Born With Nose Trying To Become Two Noses

A coworker sent these to me from another hospital she was helping at. No concerns, been like that since birth.

Image credits: OpheliaWolfsbane

Other genetically-caused illnesses in animals include epilepsy, polydactyly (extra fingers or toes), cancer, congenital heart anomalies, eosinophilic skin disease, polycystic kidney disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, progressive retinal atrophy, vitiligo, among others.

#25 A Black Vitiligo Kitty

Image credits: eskidefter

#26 My Dog Buster Has The Skin Condition Vitiligo. It Causes Depigmentation Of The Skin (And Fur). It’s Been 9 Months Between These Pictures

Image credits: TallyMatty

#27 Met This Unique Gentleman At A Petting Zoo This Weekend

Image credits: CarrfromKC

But there are also mutations that benefit the body. Insects can develop an immunity to pesticides that cover certain crops. Not really good for humans, but, hey, the animal found a way to survive, so it benefits it.

Another example is nylon-eating bacteria. Now, it might not necessarily benefit the bacteria itself, but it does solve the problem of degrading nylon-based waste.

#28 My All-Black Cat Had Five All-White Kittens

Image credits: ChoseSinWon

#29 Blaze, The Vitiligo Labrador

Image credits: blazethedog__

#30 My Friend’s Cat Has A Comically Long Tail

Image credits: captainwalnut

If you’ve enjoyed this listicle of cute, inspiring and interesting genetic animal mutations, there’s more where that came from on Bored Panda.

But if you can’t be bothered with that, why not leave a comment and upvote before you go on your next online adventure?

#31 If You Never Saw One, Here Is An Albino Raccoon

Image credits: Orion117

#32 A Permanently Startled Rescue Cat Shocks Social Media With His Sweet, Expressive Face

Image credits: fedja_kot

#33 This Is Our Polydactyl Boy, Jax! He’s Odd

Lynx-Siamese, for anyone wondering.

Image credits: MadCactusCreations

#34 This Beautiful Dachshund With Vitiligo

#35 This Is Beaux Tox. He Was Born With A Facial Deformity

Image credits: boredpanda.com

#36 Bean Does The Best Baby Bat Impression

Her nose didn’t develop properly so her nostrils are inside her mouth where her incisors are.

Image credits: reddit.com

#37 This Is My Handsome, Cross-Eyed Cat, Gus

Image credits: MrQuickLine

#38 Scrappy, A Cat With Vitiligo

Image credits: seniorscrappy

#39 My Cat’s Fangs Are So Long His Mouth Doesn’t Close All The Way

Image credits: LilacTeax

#40 This Is Mitch. He Has An Extra Vertebrae, So His Tail Is Extra Long. He Carries It On His Back Like A Squirrel

Image credits: TankArchives

#41 My Polka-Dotted Lizard, Metric. Born Footless

Image credits: Mourning_Gecko

#42 My Dog’s Nose Has Slowly Been Turning Black Over The Last 9 Years

Image credits: thesweetestberry

#43 My Friend’s Cat Bianca Has Thumbs

Image credits: ruleroflemmings

#44 Too Many Beans – 7 On Each

Image credits: RoseOxide

#45 Jinx Has Unusually Large Eyes And Feet – He Was Once The Mayor Of Hell, Michigan

Image credits: bigfootjinx

#46 Unique Looking Akita

Image credits: LyricalHobbitses

#47 One Of My Bestie’s Kittens Has Dwarfism

He’s two months old and he’s barely the size of one of her pet rats. He is so small but so mighty. His name is Roger, and he’s a cutie.

Image credits: witchscrawl

#48 Polly – Polydactyl, Checking In! 8 + 7 = My Two Front Feet

My name is Polly. I talk with my people, like cuddles, and I nibble on noses, ears, and hair because some monster left me in a dumpster before I was properly weaned. I have a good life and a good sister-friend Crackers now though.

Image credits: Karcharos

#49 Cute Little Boy Looking For Attention (Persian With Hypertrichosis)

Image credits: atchoumthecat

#50 This Is Memphis. He Was Born With Two Noses

Image credits: memphis2nosecat

#51 Curled Polydactyl Footsies

Image credits: antipathyx

#52 Full-Time Cat. Part-Time Gargoyle

This is Wilbur. He’s my soulmate! He is albino and the black crust is due to an autoimmune disease. He’s very happy and healthy.

Image credits: Spirited_Tomorrow169

#53 She’s So Unique With Her 3-Colored Eyes

When I adopted her I thought her eyes would be green and blue and as she grew the blue revealed a hazel corner that makes her unique. I love her so much, she’s 4 now and my very best friend.

Image credits: ottelevon

#54 My Cat Has Double Canines, A Condition Known As Retained Deciduous Teeth

Image credits: Freak-996

#55 Bentley’s Lucky Paw

Image credits: leamariagr

#56 This Dood Has A Slight Genetic Mutation That Keeps His Facial Hair A Little Short. He Was The Only One In His Litter To Look Like This

Image credits: One-Fuel396

#57 This Dog With A Split Nose

Image credits: Saskuatchewan

#58 This Is Kaylis, My Sweet, Special Boy. He Was Born With Half-Eyelids, So He Always Looks Grumpy, But He’s The Sweetest Boy

Image credits: pretty-pet-meylin

#59 Our New Highlander Kitten… Polydactyl On All Four Paws And Curled Ears. We Love Our Unique Little Kitty

Image credits: South_Texas_Shooter

#60 Meet Garfield! He Was Born With A Unique Smile And Loves Life

Image credits: JDogg_of_RS

#61 Introducing My Foster Kitty Who Was Born With Only Three Legs

Image credits: hikingfortheviews

#62 My Cat Was Born With Two Different-Sized Ears

Image credits: thescarfismissing

#63 My Tiny Little Potato, Whose Ears Never Seemed To Grow

Image credits: barkingsimian

#64 Gioia And Her Beautiful Wavy Fur (Cornish Rex Cat)

Image credits: dodgerecharger

#65 His Name Is Sky, You Can See Why

Image credits: Artur_Skrypnyk

#66 My Friend Ran Into This Cat Today. Never Seen This Combination Before

Image credits: IsaBreeza

#67 This Cat I Rescued From The Street Has Partial Heterochromia

Image credits: society_man

#68 My Puppy, Edgar, Has All-White Whiskers On One Side And All-Black On The Other

Image credits: BurblingCreature

#69 My Cat Has Different Colored Claws

Image credits: SlothMonster9

#70 Dwarfism In Chickens? + Crazy Polydactyly

This is my sweet lady, Matilda. She is a naked neck, frizzle, silkie mutt, who I believe is inbred and also has dwarfism. I adopted her from Craigslist. She got terribly attacked by another hen of mine, so I’ve been keeping her inside until her feathers grow back. During this time I noticed a plethora of ridiculous things with her: her skin and toes were so pale, she had barely any energy, and she’s got poly-polydactyly (there are toes on her extra toes!). No matter what, she is always freezing or overheating, her feathers are always falling out and super dry or growing incorrectly. Despite being a similar age to my other silkies, Matilda is so tiny (3rd pic is her next to a 6-month-old silkie rooster).

Image credits: GuineaPiggum

#71 My Low Rider With Dwarfism. He’s A Rottweiler/Australian Shepard

Image credits: CountryStyleRibs

#72 All 4 Of My Cat’s Paws Have Unique Black/Pink Combinations

Image credits: IAmAHiggsBoson

#73 Curly Brow

Image credits: Everath

#74 My Beautiful Albino Ragdoll

Image credits: basedjamie

#75 This Gorgeous Girl With Canine Vitiligo Deserves All The Treats In The World

Image credits: thespotteddawg

#76 Meet Atlas – Staffy/Boxer/Aussie With Vitiligo. He Has A Tail That Wags 100 Miles Per Hour

Image credits: atlasandekko

#77 Fitzgerald And His Favorite Toy

Image credits: emmentine-

#78 Where It Started And Where We Are Now At 9 Weeks Old

Winter is the runt of her litter, and she has a fast metabolism, but she’s growing up big and strong. Loving her heterochromia. And yes she can hear from both ears. We got her checked.

Image credits: HappeeWrite

#79 I Heard You All Like Whiskers, So Here You Go

Image credits: Character_Elephant30

#80 My Rare Brown Cat Here. Here’s Bodhi For Your Viewing Pleasure

He is a Suffolk Chocolate cat and has a very unique personality to match his rare brown coat. He is my best friend.

Image credits: EwokWrangler

#81 My Two Pups Put On Their Best Bow Ties To Introduce Themselves – Ruby And Dino, They Both Have Canine Dwarfism

Image credits: dogememes_dinoruby

#82 Figured You Would Find This As Interesting As My Colleagues And I. A Baby Hare With A Severe Cleft Palate, No Nose (Or Nostrils) Formed

Image credits: Reykoh

#83 A Gecko At My Parents’ House With A Deformed Trident Tail

Image credits: WeinerSlaaav

#84 My Dog Has Heterochromia

Image credits: toddy-bear

#85 Sir Chonks. Yes, That’s My Dalmatian With Dwarfism. He Smol

Image credits: dogememes_dinoruby

#86 Chocolate Brown Tuxedo Kitten

This was posted by a Northern Colorado TNR organization, shared with them by a trapper in Denver where this cutie was apprehended. They said that brown is a rare genetic mutation of the gene for black fur, and that they trapped another brown cat in the area. He’s already spoken for, so wish him a happy life off the streets!

Image credits: amaranthusrowan

#87 My Autistic Cat With Some Extra Features

Image credits: Thrimmar

#88 Furry Baby Yoda

Image credits: luniquetipou_

#89 This Is Cali. She Was Born With 3.5 Legs And Is The Sweetest Cat I’ve Ever Known. She Is A Certified Derpy Princess

Image credits: highly_lake_lee

#90 Roary Is A Small Dog – Only With Very Long Legs

Roary is a rescue from Bosnia and was found to be an unusual mix between a Chihuahua and a German Shepherd, hence why his legs are a bit longer than your average Chihuahua’s!

Image credits: fluffypomeranians

#91 My Special Boy

Bruno was one of four in his litter born with a cleft palate, and the only survivor He needed tube feedings around the clock for the first few months of life. He’s now almost 2 years old and 80 lbs. He’s the sweetest, goofiest, happiest boy. 

Image credits: annibchill

#92 My Dog Salem Has Persistent Pupillary Membrane

Image credits: FarFromFaith33

#93 Anyone Else’s Tortie Has Opposite Color Whiskers And Eyelashes?

Image credits: badheartdave

#94 Amber With Her Extra Toes

Image credits: GooglyEyedBananas

#95 My Parent’s Cat Has A Single White And Curly Whisker, The Rest Are Black

Image credits: Tiramisuwu

#96 Unique Eyes. Never Seen Tri-Colored Eyes Before We Met Milo

Image credits: babybelle1198

#97 My Dog’s Iris Has A Dark Spot

Image credits: crispy_towel

#98 My Cat Only Has One Eyebrow

Image credits: PM_ME_YUR_CREDITCARD

#99 My Cousin’s Cat Has Only Two Toe Beans

Image credits: twisterlikespie

#100 My Red Heeler Mix Puppy Has Sectoral Heterochromia That Runs Straight Through The Middle Of Her Eye, Giving Her A Half-Brown And Half-Blue Iris

Image credits: warealpha

#101 A Golden Retriever Puppy With 6 Toes Came Into This Vet’s Office

Image credits: Lyd_Euh

#102 This Is Lumi (~2 Years) She Has Polydactyly And Lives With Hazel (~9.5 Years) Who She Sometimes Uses As A Pillow

Image credits: live-laugh-l0ve

#103 Polydactyly Dragon

I thought I knew everything about my boy but only noticed tonight that he has an extra toe on one of his back feet! He is in the middle of finishing a shed on his legs so that’s why the coloration is off but I was so excited when I saw this! He is 2 years old.

Image credits: marjo022770

#104 Today We Achieved Maximum Ears

Image credits: chenDawg

#105 Our Rescue Kitten Is Polydactyl

Image credits: Buckshot211

#106 Tailless Kitty

It’s a birth defect I think, her front legs are shorter than the back, runs like a rabbit hopping.

Image credits: GrandeVin

#107 Dwarfism In Chickens

I never knew dwarfism was a thing in chickens. All three of these hens are from the same hatching.

Image credits: not_the_worst_mom

#108 My Cat Carl Has Freakishly Long Arms

Image credits: tremillow

#109 Pumpkin Spice, Paw-Print Nose, Papillon Season Has Officially Started

Image credits: Esoteric_art

#110 My Friend’s Cat Has Extra Toes

Image credits: morgthefrog

#111 Y’all Want Some Beans?

Image credits: Life_in_absentia

#112 Both Of These Kittens Are Genetically Black, But One Has Albinism

Image credits: church0fchris

#113 Gizmo And His One Curly Whisker

Image credits: swedhitman

#114 My Dog Has Extra Toes On Her Hind Legs And They Wiggle When She Walks. They’re Boneless And Cute

Image credits: kachiggabro

#115 My Friend’s Illegally Small Cat Has Dwarfism (Small Suitcase And Hand For Scale)

She’s a sick little lady due to her health conditions, but she’s still living her best life! She’s 5 lbs, smaller than your average toaster and pictures will never do her smollness justice.

Image credits: Botanicalghost

#116 Say Hi To Stevie. She’s Got A Cleft Palate But Doesn’t Seem To Mind. Loves People And Animals, Hates Trash Bags And Snores Like A Bear. 8 Months Old And 100% A Goofball

Image credits: BarronCheese

#117 Albino Ball Python

Image credits: Educational_Look6597

#118 Reservation Dog With An Extra Toe

Image credits: saltlick420

#119 A Tale Of Two Tailless Best Buds

Image credits: Effective-Soil-6947

#120 My Cat Has 2 Thumbs On Each Paw

Image credits: deerwolf90