my dad is in his mid forties is not bold, my grandad wasn't bald to he was 60 but boldness gene is apparently meant to come from your mothers side of the family according to my year 10 science teacher.

Verrry interesting, Dot! I'm just as relieved that's not in my system because I adore raw veggies. Mind you, I guess I wouldn't if I had that genetic trait.

By the way. Can anyone else wiggle their nose?

I can flare my nostrils, the right a bit more than the left (or so it feels ).

Louise the First, I, too, can wiggle my ears, which translates backwards from moving my temples. Is that how you do it too?

My hands crack a lot when I twist them

My sister's toes do that. One can hear her coming from quite a ways away. Actually, it's not an annoying sound: 'tis rather comforting in a strange way. (Maybe just 'cause I know it's her. )

What about rolling the tounge?

We were trying this on a boat at the Moot in June and a few of us could do it. We have a picture of one mod with her tongue rolled, and I was trying, but ended up laughing too hard. Summary: I can roll my tongue, but not when I'm chuckling.

Shadowlander, I can raise my left eyebrow nice and high ( ), but not my right, try as I might.

Anyway you guys with these traits , do you find it hard to imagine not being able to do it?

Right on, IlF! They're just such a fun part of me.

Ooh, this is a fun thread. XD

I have a bunch of genetic traits that I can't seem to pinpoint. For example, I'm left-handed, can curl my tongue, wiggle my ears, and touch my nose with my tongue--yet neither of my parents (or grandparents, for that matter) had these traits. I'm the only lefty in my immediate family, and the closest relative is a... third cousin, I believe. One of my siblings can curl her tongue, and another can wiggle his ears. We're a very confusing bunch.

However, I can raise my right eyebrow (by itself), which I got from both of my parents.

I can wiggle my eyebrows. The other night my family and I were sitting around the dinner table, and we determined that my brother could as well. Both of us inherited this trait from my dad, whereas my mom and younger sister can't wiggle their eyebrows.

*strikes a heroic pose* I guess this is just one more thing that proves how awesome I am.

Spoiler

(Sarcasm, people. Sarcasm. )

what a great thread

I'm a left-hander (and proud of it ), which comes from my mom who was a left-hander (but in her day, all left-handed children were trained to use their right hand, perfectly dreadful if you ask me) we've got two leftys in the family, my older brother and me (and it's quite a coincidence that we were both born in March )
I've got enromous eyes that I inherited from my great-grandma from my mother's side and I can keep one eye completely shut in a relaxed state (not squineted shut) and the other completely open (also in a relaxed state)
Almost everyone in my family can roll their tongue and pick up one eyebrow....except for me I don't know why I can't, I just can't, I've tried to many times and my sisters tried to teach me, but it's won't work! but I can bend my thumb back half way while they can't

And I don't know if this is genetic or not, but except for my oldest sister, all my siblings (and myself included) hate fish and other kinds of seafood. My grandma from my mom's side is always lamenting about this fact, but we tell her that we just inherited the dislike from our dad (who absolutely hates most types of fish) while our oldest sister inherited a love for fish and seafood from our mom (I don't know if it's true or not, but it does help weasel our way out of eating fish and seafood prodcuts )

I have yet to see how to vidio my wormish vien, but I will have to ask the offspring to assist.
Right handed myself, the Mrs. is a lefty. Though here is the odd part. I am left eye dominant, therefot shoot bow, and rifle left handed. She shoots right. Confusing yet?

When it comes to foods here is an odd one. A younger sibling is allergic to fish slime ( a real bother to a marsh-wiggle) but he loves fish. So he wears gloves while handling them, else he breaks out.

I can raise one eyebrow at a time, because I trained my muscles in front of a mirror years ago (Spock influence?). I also began learning to find the muscles for each toe on my feet, but didn't get far and lost interest.
Also taught myself to imitate a guinea pig eating (copied a pet we had years ago) - it never fails to make people laugh!
I can roll my tongue, daresay all the family can. My brother is left handed, while the rest of us are right handed.

Haha, my bro is double-jointed in his thumb at least, and he can wiggle his ears, Riella. And I freak out when he does his thumb. I can do neither. I can roll my rongue to the right, but not to the left. *correction* I apparently can, as I was messing around with it while I typed, lol. It's just harder to get started.

Um...no one in our family is left handed except for one, maybe two cousins, as far as I know. And I inherited my sense of smell from my grandmother (which I have now started thinking of as 'the super snifer' thanks to Psych's Gus ). And maybe I can taste the chemical in veggies too, as some things taste bitter to me, like whitish lettece. Oh my gosh I hate purple lettece too, it's terribly bitter But maybe it is to everyone, IDK.

I think we need to point out there are some differences in genetic traits, as opposed to learned.
As coracle indicated there are some that are definitly genetic, rolling the tongue, left or right handed-ness, etc.
But then there are the things that we can train our body to do. Raising eyebrows, or a left-handed person training themselves to write right-handed.
There are even some things that are really reactions to our enviroment. I know of one fellow who believed himself allergic to the red dye in cough-drops, causing his lips to swell. When in reality he was experiencing the dye reacting to some cilicut ( I hope I am spelling that right) powder that had been blown onto his lips. The powder, imbeded in the skin tissue reacted to the chemical in the dye causing the swelling.

Having bent thumbs and fingers can prove to be a hazard some times but good for other thinks(such as holding fridge handles as weird as that sounds and using touch pads with long nails). It is a hazard when you have to get your finger nails checked at sport, i cant hold my finger completely straight and most of the umpires didn't understand this and though I was trying to cheat.

Also, I haveno clue if it's genetic or not, but sometimes my toe pops/cracks when I move it.

And I got 'ballerina arches' - my mom has some pretty good ones too and my grandmother was a ballerina...I wonder if she has good arches too...and if stuff like that can 'evolve' in a family? If you know what I mean.

Think this is genetic... I'm nearly 50 and I still have a full head of hair, and hardly any grey hairs. Most of my friends who are my age are either bald or grey.

^ Indeed, I heard somewhere it is from your mothers side.(don't quote me on that), my non-blood uncle is the same, he is nearly fifty isn't bold and has very few grey hairs. My day is no where near bold but has nearly white hair and his 47.

I can flare my nostrils, the right a bit more than the left (or so it feels ).

Me too, except mine are even I've attempt to copy-cat/ communicate with my rabbits this way since they do a similar thing (nose-twitching )... not sure if they responded or not

My smile on the other hand is a bit crooked I've come to blame it on the fact that my right canine is in the wrong spot... but who knows whether or not that's actually the cause But yeah the dentist ended up having to pull my baby tooth out cuz it wouldn't fall out... we then figured out it was because the adult tooth was wedged between my premolars so through the help of braces they moved one of my premolars over and one day it finally popped through So now I have two teeth switched, but most people don't notice until I tell them

My hair's a bit interesting (and a bit of a pain) in that it's fairly thick and curly... (It actually can dreadlock naturally though I try not to let it) Parts of it are smoother that other parts though... My aunt who does my hair often complains it's almost as though I have two different hair types And don't even ask me what color it is... It's alternated between a dark blonde and dark brown throughout my life... Everybody always tells me it's a different color than what I thought so I eventually just gave up on trying to figure it out. XD Both my parents have brown hair though my dad's sister has blonde hair and my mom was adopted so I don't really know about her genetic side (Edit: though my half-brother on her side has blond hair)... Texture wise I think it's mostly from my mother, though dad's get's curly too if it grows out enough.

When my dad was young and when I was about 10-14 we both used to have better than 20-20 vision, but old age kicked in for him, and my mom's genes kicked in for me so now I'm slightly nearsighted and I have to wear glasses to read notes on the board at school... (*misses the days when she used to see well ) And Dad can't read up close anymore

wolfloversk. I cannot say for sure, as I know few rabbits, but most likely they think our attempts at nose-twitch-talk to be rather funny. At least I have not caught them laughing behind my back over my having a poor accent.

As for hair coming from a mother's side I believe it. I have a young nephew who has thick curly hair. To look at a picture of his maternal grandfather at the same age they could have been twins, accept that the grandfather is now almost compleatly bald.

Lucy. While I do not believe in evolution, I do believe that certain traits, already existing will come to the fore with use. Shaggy dogs in one place but not another, etc.