We have “Patient Zero” for diseases but what is the term for someone who has a new genetic mutation?
“A person”. Every single person has genetic mutations that differentiate them from every other person. Now if their mutation happens to be wings or something, then I don’t know, ‘Bird-Person’ probably.
Patient 1
You know what’s really wild? Every single person on the planet is a mutant, technically. All are completely novel combinations of genes that are VERY SIMILAR to their “human” parents, but with some changes here and there. Same for all life really. Except clones and mitosis, the cheaters.
Mutant. not kidding.
X-Original
Mutant.
A person with a genetic mutation
I propose “startling” if the mutation is enough to qualify as a new species. Sort of like the opposite of an endling and you get a fitting double meaning as a fun bonus.
If there’s only one individual of a given species he cannot reproduce with anyone so he would be an endling at the same time.
Not necessarily. It’s way more complicated, and there’s no clear line. If you use that definition, then coyotes and wolves become the same species, for example.
It’s a important part of the definition:
species (noun):
A group of closely related organisms that are very similar to each other and are usually capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
Basically if you’re similar enough and can produce fertile offspring you’re considered the same species. This is why one a single mutation is unlikely to produce a new species. If the mutation has such great consequences that it produces new species by definition it cannot have fertile offspring with anyone else. And yes, it says ‘usually’, there are exceptions but I think this is how it works in general.
That’s why it’d be startling to find a startling.
