IS STATEMENT THIS TRUE?

“Male and female meeroos look different.”

True.

Females have eyelashes, males don’t. Gotta love this little detail!

“I have one meeroo with a specific trait, but whether she’ll make more is just luck.”

False.

Well, luck plays a part, but most of it is planning. We’ll do another example with ears, continuing from the previous post.

(Disclaimer: This is a theory based on Tiger’s explanations of Meeroo genetics (linked from the previous post). It has worked and continues to work for me, but it’s certainly possible that things are much more complicated.)

So you finally got a meeroo with notched ears. For simplicity, let’s assume it’s a pure notched (i.e., both its ear genes are notched). We’ll name the notched gene n, so this meeroo’s ear genetics are nn.
Notched appears to be recessive to both normal ears and short ears, as everybody who has paired notched/normal or notched/short will know.

First, we’ll pair the meeroo with notched ears, nn, with a normal-eared meeroo XX:

Now all the children carry the notched ear gene (though none of them show it), but we can’t breed children back to their parents, so we have to breed one generation further. Let’s pair one of these Xn meeroos to another XX:

Now half of the children carry the notched gene, and could be paired back to the original meeroo — but we don’t know which ones; they all look the same! However, if we have a short-eared meeroo ss, and breed that one to one of the Xn meeroos, this happens:

The short ear gene is dominant over notched, but recessive to normal, which is why I have written it as both S and s depending on what it is paired with. You can see that again, 50% of children carry the notched gene — but you know that all of the short-eared children carry it. For a meeroo from this pairing to show short ears, the hidden gene has to be notched; its only possibilities for the second gene from the other parent are normal and notched, and if it had gotten the normal gene, its ears would be normal because normal is dominant over short.

Still with me? Let’s pair the short/notched meeroo back to the original notched meeroo:

All of the children carry the notched gene; half of them will be short-eared, and half of them will be notch-eared. Success!

“It’s all just luck.”

False.

Tiger said: “When people asked how the Meeroo genetics worked, I wasn’t kidding when I posted in the forums your best bet is to start reading up on Mendelian genetics on Wikipedia.”

Let me try to explain these things as simply as I can, with meeroo examples.

For traits like ears, hair, tail, and head shape, we’ll assume that a meeroo has two genes. If they are different, one is dominant over the other: that one will be the visible trait. The meeroo then still carries a second, hidden, recessive trait, that he can pass to his children.

Let’s consider a meeroo with normal ears, and a meeroo with short upright ears. In both meeroos, we’ll assume that the ear trait is pure (the ear genes they have are both the same; note that this has nothing to do with the word “pure” you’ll see used in the meeroo ad groups).

We know that pairing a normal-eared meeroo with a meeroo with short upright ears usually results in a normal-eared meeroo, so the gene for normal ears is dominant over the gene for short upright ears. We’ll name the gene for normal ears X (uppercase because it’s dominant in this example), and the gene for short upright ears s (lowercase because it’s recessive).

Now we’ll pair those two meeroos, the XX one and the ss one:

When you pair two meeroos, the children will inherit one gene for each two-gene trait from each parent. In this case, the father has two X genes for ears, while the mother has two s genes. Thus, all children get one X from the father and one s from the mother, resulting in Xs meeroos. Because X is dominant over s, all these meeroos will have normal ears. But all of them carry the gene for short ears.

Now we’ll take two such meeroos (from different parents of course, since siblings can’t mate):

As you can see, there are now different possible outcomes. The children could get an X gene from the father, and an s from the mother; or X from both, or s from both. Because X is dominant over s, all children who inherit at least one X will have normal ears. The children who inherit both s genes will have short upright ears. Statistically, 25% of the children of such a couple will have short upright ears, and 75% will have normal ears. Of the ones who have normal ears, 2/3 will carry the short upright ear gene.

It gets more complex when you involve further genes, which I will attempt to explain in a later post.

“The eye colour of a nest is determined by the mother.”

True. (Or at least, that’s the prevailing theory.)

Assume that the mother has two eye colour genes: the visible one, and a secondary, hidden one. All her nests (barring mutations) will have either her visible eye colour, or her secondary one. A nest’s hidden eye colour will be either the father’s visible eye colour, or his secondary one.

“If I pair a clear irish eye and a dusty monsoon eye, I have a good chance at a clear monsoon eye.”

False. Here’s how it works (according to the prevailing theory, at least):

“Clear” in itself is not a trait. Remember when I said above that a meeroo has two eye colour genes, one visible, one hidden? When those two genes are the same colour, the meeroo’s eyes are clear. If they are different colours, the meeroo’s eyes are dusty. If you pair a clear irish female and a dusty monsoon male, pretty much all the nests will have irish eyes. If you pair two clear eyes of different colours, all the children will be dusty. If you pair two clear eyes of the same colour, all the children will be clear eyes of that same colour.

How to get clear eyes then when all you have is dusty? Pair two meeroos with the same dusty eye colour for a good chance. (“Chance” is a keyword here — you can pair two dusty orchids and get dusty indigo ten times in a row, like I did :))

“Clear eyes are better than dusty eyes.”

Well. “Better” in the sense that you know which colour a clear-eyed meeroo passes to its children, maybe. Not everybody likes clear eyes better than dusty, either; I prefer dusty eyes myself.

“Eye colour is somehow linked to coats.”

I think there’s no clear evidence for that at this time. The theory probably stems from Tiger’s statement about genetics “It all begins with the eyes.”

Some people think this is clear evidence that coats and everything else is all somehow linked to the eyes, and we should start breeding clear eyes and then the rest would fall into place. Other people (including me) think it means that the eye genetics are the easiest to figure out, and the other traits work in other, similarly or even more complicated ways. Meeroos try to be a complex genetic puzzle, and for people like me, attempting to piece that together is most of the fun!

“So eyes really are that simple, and there are no exceptions.”

False.

Here’s an example of an exception (You have to be logged into the Meeroos website to see the links):

Look at my meeroo Flodaigh. She has monsoon/dusty eyes, so her primary eye colour is monsoon. Her father has capri eyes, so her hidden eye colour might well be capri. And indeed, she has produced monsoon nests and capri nests.

But then there’s this eclipse nest. Where did that come from?

One possibility is that there’s still a bit more to the eye genetics than what is outlined above. I’ve seen other examples of anomalies, and all the ones I can remember now involved eclipse eyes. Maybe that was just coincidence — or maybe there is something special about eclipse. (Edit: In going through my data, I found another apparent mutation, which isn’t eclipse — indigo from a lunar/irish mother.)

Another possibility (which I currently favour) is that the unexpected eclipse eye was a random mutation.

The meeroo user guide says this: “Whether a player has 1 or 100 Meeroos™ in their family, there is always the possibility of random mutations, when a genetic anomaly or throwback presents itself unexpectedly. These are incredibly rare!” and in the regard section, this: “Breeding Benefits: Meeroos™ and Players with higher Regard have better chances of reaching further back into their genetic history for exploration!”

Both Flodaigh and me had rather high regard at the time of that nest, so it stands to reason that we’re seeing a mutation/throwback caused by high regard in action here.

“Canine, Feline, and Normal heads look almost the same.”

False.

Here’s a picture to illustrate the differences:

The small one in the front/on the left is a feline, the one in the middle a normal, and the one in the back/on the right a canine head. Note that the muzzle on the feline is a lot shorter, and on the canine a bit longer. The canine also doesn’t have a pronounced stop between forehead and muzzle, and its face is narrower and more triangular. The feline head, viewed from above, is heart-shaped, while the normal head is more rounded.

“If a nest shows Baby Ready, it’s broken!”

False.

Here’s what’s happening and what you can do:

If the Meeroo database is slow or unreachable at the moment a meeroo pair makes a nest, the nest will not get its ID and stats properly. The hovertext will show only the names of the parents and “Baby Ready”.

Once the database has recovered, you have two options:

1.) Coax the nest. The nest will contact the database for a new ID and stats, and your meeroo will be born just fine. (Note: Please do not coax the nest without a stump in an attempt to reset the stats and keep the nest; Malevay said not to do that.)

2.) File a ticket. If the website already lists this latest nest from that pair, include the ID. Otherwise, include the IDs of the parents.

Note that when you look up the parents on the website, it may show another nest from them that does not actually exist in world. (That would be the ID and stats your nest was originally supposed to get, but never did. On coaxing or resetting it with the above method, it gets entirely new stats and ID from the database, so your meeroo pair will show two nests from that cycle, of which only one exists.)

If a nest shows Awaiting, it’s broken!

True — well, sort of. The male meeroo builds the nest first, then the female comes over and “puts the baby in.” Sometimes the male builds a nest, but the female never does her part; usually the male builds another nest later and then the female completes it normally.

If you have a nest that says “Awaiting”, but the same male has already made a new nest, you can just delete it. If the nest has been stuck in “Awaiting” for over an hour, you can just delete it as well; the male will likely still make a new one.

“If you want to ensure that only specific pairs mate, you can only house two meeroos per stump.”

False. You can easily fit two pairs to a stump, or even four if you’re in a fellowship. Here’s how:
– If you’re in a fellowship, simply set one pair to fellowship and the other not. Fellowshipped meeroos will only mate with other fellowshipped meeroos, and meeroos without a fellowship will only mate with other meeroos without a fellowship. Stump and food do not have to be set to fellowship for this.
– If you have pairs of different personalities, they can share a stump if their personalities don’t overlap. Here’s a list to get you started:

• A lazy/friendly pair can share a stump with an aggressive/aggressive pair.
• A lazy/mischievous pair can share a stump with a shy/shy pair.
• A friendly/shy pair can share a stump with a mischievous/mischievous pair.
• An aggressive/shy pair can share a stump with a lazy/lazy pair.
• An aggressive/mischievous pair can share a stump with a friendly/friendly pair.

Depending on gender or on whether the pairs are related, more combinations are possible!

Combine personalities and fellowship setting, and you can fit 4 pairs on a stump.

“Meeroos that are related cannot mate.”

Partially true. Brothers and sisters can’t mate, not even half-brothers and half-sisters (sharing one parent); neither can father and daughter, or mother and son. Aunts and nephews, uncles and nieces, grandparents and grandkids are all fine, though.

“Meeroos with a big age difference cannot mate.”

False. A five day old mates with a fifty-five day old just fine.

“Some meeroos just don’t like each other and won’t breed, even if they’re compatible.”

False.

If they show as compatible on the stump (both names on one line with a heart inbetween), they can breed. (If they don’t, check if you have enough free prims, if your stump and meeroos are set to the correct group for your land, or if you have an excessive amount of scripted objects near your pair.)

If they don’t show as compatible, but you think they should, here are a few reasons why they might not show:
– Are their personalities incompatible? (L mates with L, F, M — F mates with F, L, S — A mates with A, S, M — S mates with S, F, A — M mates with M, L, A.)
– Are they closely related? Fathers/daughters, mothers/sons, brothers/sisters will not mate.
– Is one set to fellowship, and the other not? Both meeroos must have the same fellowship setting (both in fellowship, or both not in fellowship) to pair up.
– Do you have many meeroos on the stump, possibly with long names? The stump hovertext has a maximum of 255 characters; if it is longer than that, it might be truncated, and even though a pair on the stump is actually compatible (and will breed), it might not show.

“Meeroos have different animations depending on their personalities.”

True. Every personality has one signature move:

Top row, left to right: Lazy, Shy
Bottom row, left to right: Mischievous, Friendly, Aggressive

“Meeroos can produce nests when in Season Rise, Peak, or Fall.”

True.

“Two meeroos can breed when one is in Season Rise and the other is in Season Fall.”

False.
If one meeroo is in Rise while another is in Fall, those two are never compatible.
Let’s look at a season chart:

As you can see, the Rise/Fall pairs are as follows:

• Mischievous (Rise) / Shy (Fall)
• Aggressive (Rise) / Friendly (Fall)
• Shy (Rise) / Lazy (Fall)
• Friendly (Rise) / Mischievous (Fall)
• Lazy (Rise) / Aggressive (Fall)

None of these are compatible.

“A meeroo’s season chart depends on the day it was born.”

False. The seasons are global; all meeroos of the same personality are in the same season on the same day.
Use this handy script by Toy Wylie (just copy it into an empty script in a default prim), and you will always know what season it is!

“A meeroo’s breeding life ends at Day 60.”

True. To be more exact, the last possible chance for a meeroo to make a nest is at age 60.0 – at 60.25, it will switch to “Elderly”.

“Which treasures a meeroo digs up depends on its species.”

True.

Here’s what my meeroos have dug up so far:

• All meeroos – Apple Core, Broken Pipe, Rotten Banana, Tin Can
• Gael – Stale Shortbread, Toy Canoe, Bagpipe Horn, Empty Mug, Patch of Plaid Fabric, Nessie Tooth
• Pine – Eagle Feather, Medicine Pouch, Arrowhead, Old Copper Coin, Gold Bar, Cowboy Hat
• Masked – Pouch of Rice, Piece of Bamboo, Teacup, Cherry Blossom, Samurai Sword, Kabuki Mask
• Nile – Clay Vase, Tablet of Hieroglyphs, Lump of Charcoal, Piece of Papyrus, Pyramid Trinket, Eye of Horus
• Savanna – Porcupine Quill, Woven Basket, Ceremonial Mask, Wooden Trinket, Zulu Spear, Raw Diamond

“Rare (yellow glowing) treasures give 300-600 points the first time you find them, then 50 points thereafter.”

True.

“A meeroo needs high regard to dig up a rare (yellow) treasure.”

False. Mine have often dug up eagle feathers right after coaxing.

“What a meeroo digs up indicates its hidden genes.”

False. (Or rather, no evidence whatsoever, and I think it’s very unlikely.) Come on, does anyone really believe that?