- cross-posted to:
- cat@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- cat@lemmy.world
Maine Coon named Erebus Anomaly breaks previous record of 28 toes held for over two decades after overcoming illness
A Maine Coon kitten from Wisconsin overcame a bout with pneumonia to break a 24-year-old world record for most toes on a cat, setting the new mark at 29.
Erebus Anomaly’s unique story received US national media attention on Monday, when ABC’s World News Now program recounted what one of his owners called a “miraculous” recovery from illness in his infancy – and the subsequent Guinness World Record that he clinched.
Erebus’s unprecedented wealth of toes is evidently attributed to a genetic trait, polydactyly, that causes some cats to be born with extra phalanges and – according to a 2016 article in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery – is relatively common in Maine Coons.
What does the pneumonia have to do with the record? It now sounds like the pneumonia gave it extra toes. I’m moderately confident that’s not how it happened.
It says the x-rays that were taken because of the pneumonia were important documentation for the toe count. Maybe not everything is easily externally visible so they wouldn’t have known without the pneumonia?