Something Steve said in a reply on the Why I remain a Darwin Skeptic thread made me wonder. People are able to recognize and distinguish between hundreds of individuals. No doubt we are more attuned to differences between individuals in our own species than we are in a herd of pigs or a pack of baboons. But Steve’s remark made me wonder whether those 80 mutations are what account for the differences in our appearance which make it possible for us to tell each other apart? Or does variability in our assembly in the womb also contribute? I suppose identical twins would seem to favor it being the genetic mutations which make us distinct, but then again identical twins also share the exact same assembly conditions in the womb so perhaps that makes it less a slam dunk for evo over devo?
Nothing urgent in this question whatsoever but if anyone knows the answer I would be much obliged.
Interesting question. Will let more knowledgeable folk reply to that. The twins comment may need a bit more discussion however, as identical twins often have larger birth weight disparity than fraternal twins, particularly if they shared a placenta due to “stealing” of nutrients by one of the twins, so developmental conditions may be quite different. Twins are fascinating to study.
I know one set of twins that I can tell apart as one has a clockwise vertex hair swirl and the other counterclockwise, sort of a L and D isomer of one another.