“Ancient Meeroo, a case of Black and White”

Dr. Stephen Tungsten, President MPS

Recently, breeders involved in the husbandry of Meeroos have chanced to encounter what appears to be an extremely rare set of coats within their meeroo population. Of course I am referring to the solid black and white variants that the community has recently seen and speculated on. The Meeroo Preservation Society has looked further into this issue and we have found some exciting evidence regarding this recessive and interesting trait.

The Society is fortunate enough to have the services of specialists from many scientific disciplines, including archaeology and naturally, anthropology, and it is within these studies we have found a potential answer to this curiosity.

The black and white coat variants present in most meeroo species are identified as originating from a rare recessive gene passed down quietly through many generations of meeroo until manifestation in an offspring.

Visual depictions of Meeroo exist in the art of humanity throughout the ages, arguably even being present in paleolithic cave paintings. The earliest interactions of Meeroo and man are unknown but one thing in common is that in the earliest representations the meeroo in question are almost always depicted in either black, or white.

This would lead us to conclude that the black and white coats of the Meeroo are in fact an ancient genetic lineage passed down, even potentially from the ice age. As a small note, it appears that the size of the prehistoric Meeroo was also quite a bit larger than the modern meeroo which may indicate a slow decrease in size over time and explain size differences in modern meeroo.

Additionally, from what little we have seen of this recurrence of black and white coats in contemporary meeroo, black and white coats show up in equal proportions, indicating some inherent link between the two genetic markers for both coats, further research is required to explain this phenomenon.

Why the ancient ancestors of our modern friends may have sported black or white coats is anyone's guess at this point, theories abound as to the potential for camouflage or stealth. However a definitive answer is still elusive and would require further research.

Regardless, be proud of your rare black and white Meeroo friends for they carry markers of their ancient ancestry!

[EDITOR'S NOTE: I know we like to refer to "lost lore" as part of the Meeroos story but this piece was REALLY lost and was meant to be originally published in Fall of 2011 to go along with the sudden influx of the black and white diurnal coats on the grid. I uncovered it during my search for old content while digging stuff up for SL10B. -Tiger]