Your Name

Partners Name
Period

Dragon Genetics

In this activity you will further explore the ways that genes
pass from one generation to the next using (imaginary) dragons
and their traits. Each dragon has two sets of homologous
chromosomes (one from the father, and one from the mother)
that make up their genome. The genes on these chromosomes
code for either dominant or recessive alleles. Each allele from
the father combines with the corresponding allele from the
mother to form either a homozygous dominant, homozygous
recessive, or heterozygous genotype. The genotype dictates
which phenotype is expressed.
In this exercise, you and your partner will represent the
father and mother dragon. Before you pair up, you will each use a
coin flipping technique to determine which alleles you will pass
on to your baby dragon. After each parent has determined their

Your Name

Partners Name
Period

genome you will combine the two sets to determine the babys
genotype and phenotype for each trait.

Step one: Finding the parental genomes: Below is a chart

of dragon traits including both dominant, and recessive alleles.
To determine which allele you will pass to your child, flip a coin
once for each trait, then record the chosen allele in the space
provided. Heads represents the dominant, and tails represents
the recessive allele. You will also record whether or not you can
tell your (the parent dragons) phenotype from the allele you
are passing to your baby.
Trait

Wings
(A/a)
Fins
(F/f)
Eye color
(G/g)
Ear shape
(E/e)
Toe number
(T/t)
Tail length
(L/l)
Neck length
(N/n)
Poison fangs
(D/d)
Fire
breathing
(B/b)
Skin color
(Q/q)
Horn length

Dominant
allele

Recessive
allele

(HEADS)

(TAILS)

Large wings
(A)
No fins (F)

Small wings
(a)
Fins (f)

Green (G)

Gold (g)

Pointy ears
(E)
Five toes (T)

Round ears
(e)
Four toes (t)

Long tail (L)

Short tail (l)

Short neck
Long neck (n)
(N)
No poison (D) Poison (d)
Fire (B)

No fire (b)

Black skin
(Q)
Long horns

Green skin
(q)
Short horns

Parental
allele

Can we tell
the parents
phenotype?

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(H/h)
Skin texture
(M/m)
Tail spike
(N/n)
Tongue fork
(R/r)

(H)
Scaled skin
(M)
Spiked tail
(N)
Unforked
tongue (R)

(h)
Leather skin
(m)
Unspiked tail
(n)
Forked
tongue (r)

Step Two: Determining baby dragons gender: Get together

with your partner. Decide who the father dragon is, and who the
mother dragon is. Determine your (the parent dragons) gender
genotype, then fill in each of the 1st and 2nd allele boxes with
one allele from that genotype. The mother will fill in both boxes
with an X, and the father will fill in one box with an X, and one
with a Y (it does not matter which letter goes in which box). You
will then flip a coin to determine if the baby will inherit the allele
from the heads column (1st allele) or the tails column (2nd allele).
This is the allele you will record to be passed to your baby
dragon.

Are you the mother or the father dragon?

Parental
Genotype
XX or XY

1st parental
allele (heads)

2nd parental
allele (tails)

Babys allele

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Partners Name
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Step three: Determining your baby dragons genotype

and phenotype: You and your partner will now complete the
chart on the following page. You will use the alleles found by both
you and your partner to fill in the mothers allele, and fathers
allele columns. You will combine the mother and fathers alleles
for each trait to determine your babys genotype. Record
whether the genotype is homozygous dominant,
homozygous recessive, or heterozygous. Finally, use the
genotype of each trait to determine your baby dragons
phenotype.

Trait

Wings
(A/a)
Fins
(F/f)
Eye color
(G/g)
Ear shape
(E/e)
Toe
number
(T/t)
Tail length
(L/l)
Neck
length
(N/n)
Poison
fangs
(D/d)
Fire

Mother
allele

Father
allele

Babys
genotyp
e

Homozygous
(dominant/reces
sive) or
heterozygous

Babys
phenotyp
e?

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Partners Name
Period

breathing
(B/b)
Skin color
(Q/q)
Horn
length
(H/h)
Skin
texture
(M/m)
Tail spike
(N/n)
Tongue
fork
(R/r)
Gender
(XX/XY)