# Ugly parents . gorgeous sons\daughters



## love is like a dream (Jan 7, 2011)

Have you seen families like this ?


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## alte (Sep 4, 2010)

Children share the same genes as parents but they are not exactly like them. The genes get shuffled through generations. If I remember my undergraduate course correctly, this is called meiosis. This explains part of the difference in appearance. The other factor is environmental stress which can affect development. For example, in-utero stress is associated with decreased levels of physical symmetry.

In short, genes+environment or nature+nurture. Seems like the standard explanation in biology for most questions.


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## MojoCrunch (Mar 25, 2011)

I've seen plenty of families like this. It's always been said that the ugliest people produce the most beautiful children. Same with mixed couples, I guess. But when it comes down to it genetics is an unpredictable thing and can produce the most interesting results.


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## ohgodits2014 (Mar 18, 2011)

I was better-looking when I was younger, so maybe those pesky ugly genes just aren't turned on until you become parents or at least full-fledged adults.



> If I remember my undergraduate course correctly, this is called meiosis.


Okay... I may have flunked biology, but I'm _pretty _sure meiosis is just cell division.

Edit: Wait, never mind. I reread what you wrote and understood what you meant.


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## JimmyDeansRetartedCousin (Nov 28, 2009)

It's refering to the division of the chromosomes, it's called diversity.

Overall, it's pretty important to the collective health of the species.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

Well, the beauty part isn't totally off :lol, but I can give a similar example in my own family.

All four of my grandparents were 5'5" to 5'7" (men and women). My maternal grandparents produced my aunt and mother, both 5'5". My paternal grandparents produced my father, 6'3". My mother 5'5" and father 6'3" produced myself and my brother, both 6'3". Now that's a bit odd, but there were other tall people in my grandparent's families. 

If all the children in their generation had lived, I would have had 20 great aunts and uncles. That would have been interesting :lol.


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## alte (Sep 4, 2010)

rednosereindeer said:


> Okay... I may have flunked biology, but I'm _pretty _sure meiosis is just cell division.
> .


Good catch. Meiosis is cell division. Recombination is the swapping of genetic material that happens during meiosis.



Freezing said:


> This is very informative. Thanks


you are welcome


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## daniel1989 (Feb 14, 2011)

Well the genetics that determine physical appearance could be reccessive and skip a generation?


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## alte (Sep 4, 2010)

Possibly. There are multiple genes involved with different levels of expression. I don't think we have identified all genes related to physical appearance.


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## LALoner (Dec 3, 2008)

I'm like 10x better looking than my dad. Sometimes when god is playing Mr Potato Head with the parts from both parents it just works.


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## angus (Dec 18, 2010)

When I was in high school there was this really beautiful girl called Catherine, she was a mediteranian godess, one day I went to her house and met her faimly and they all looked like sasquatch's, seeing them all together was really wierd.


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## spacebound_rocketship (Nov 21, 2009)

I look a lot like my Dad, looking at his high school photo is like looking into a mirror, except he had shorter hair.

He became very attractive (I'm not saying that in a creepy way) as an adult before he passed so *fingers crossed for myself* LOL

But my parents are have almost opposite facial features, so throw that together and you get me -_-


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## Spindrift (Mar 3, 2011)

I don't look like my mom at all, and I only vaguely resemble my dad. I'm wondering what went wrong with whacky white wookies, wham.

I just felt like adding that last part to keep the alliteration running.


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## bezoomny (Feb 10, 2007)

BPA free said:


> I remember looking at pictures of my parents when they were my age and they were pretty good looking people, but now...
> 
> gives me hope for my future :/


My mother looked astonishingly like me when she was my age. She still is a great looking woman, her only thing is that she's slightly frumpy. I guess that happens to everyone who has chiidren. So I'm not too scared by aging.


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## keithp (Mar 13, 2007)

I'm ugly and my Sister is beautiful. We both have the same Parents, so it goes to show traits are randomly passed on.


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## Freiheit (Dec 8, 2008)

I wish I looked like my mom because she's actually pretty, instead I look mostly like my dad which sucks..not that he's ugly but the type of features I inherited from him don't look too good on a girl, if I was a guy, I'd be more attractive I think...  I'm jealous of my sister because she looks like my mom and inherited more feminine features such as a nice small nose and rounded face...


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## Mae West (Sep 15, 2005)

It also has a lot to do with how well people take care of themselves. People in middle age tend to "let themselves go" to some extent. If their children keep up with their appearance in their teens, twenties and thirties they can easily look a lot different. Plus you gotta factor in makeup, hair dye and plastic surgery in some cases.


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## Akane (Jan 2, 2008)

It's kind of like when you mix breeds of animals. If you breed within the same breed they have very similar characteristics and you get nearly the same result. When you cross breeds you throw in all sorts of characteristics and the result is entirely random. 2 very well put together animals can have the ugliest offspring because it gets the worst of both or mismatching parts or 2 very poorly put together animals can produce wonderful offspring because the genes balance each other. The result is utterly random because we are mixing many different characteristics. If we have a horse with a big head compared to it's body which makes it look kind of ugly and we breed it to a horse with a large body if it inherits both of those they are now equal and it looks fine. It's athletic ability just improved over the first parent too because a horse's head helps it keep it's balance so needs to match the body for maximum athletic potential. A big nose on one person is not a big nose on another person and small eyes on one person do not appear too small on another. It all depends which characteristics combine together and how well they match or not.


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## iuseings (Nov 11, 2009)

People who are attractive tend to come from parents with greater genetic dissimilarity, whether or not the parents are attractive themselves. So the key to it is less inbreeding, better quality offspring. 

I also find that judging parents in present states (in old age) can be misleading, some people's looks fade more than others.


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