The strange case of the cyclops sheep - Tien Nguyen

In the 1950s, a group of ranchers in Idaho were baffled when their sheep gave birth to lambs with only one eye. Mystified by these cyclops sheep, they called in scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate. What happened? Tien Nguyen describes how, decades later, one team of biologists stumbled upon the answer.

Lesson by Tien Nguyen, directed by Anton Bogaty.

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[bumpom]

A scientist lived with sheep for 3 summers? Talk about persistence.

[harrymorton]

My parents are sheep farmers. On April 1st 1994 one of the lambing workers went running into the house to find my dad and tell him a one eyed lamb had been born. My dad didn't believe him thinking it was an April fool's joke, eventually the worker persuaded my dad to go outside and sure enough there was a one eyed lamb sitting in the barn. The lamb survived about 3 minutes before it died. Not sure what to do with it my dad decided to cut the lamb's head off and preserve it in formaldehyde. Now every year we have a birthday party for it where we have friends over, get drunk and only eat eye ball shaped or related foods. But I suppose contacting scientist from the department of agriculture would have been a good idea too.

[diffjuns]

I love how this style makes the cyclops sheep look cute instead of creepy

[nofanfelani]

So if a cyclop closes its eye, is it considered as winking of blinking?

[phiduong]

Can we just stop to talk about how terrifying a hedgehog mosquito would be

[ananonynoussauce]

Dissapointed that you didn't mention that the proteins coded for by the hedgehog gene is actually called the Sonic Hedgehog protein (yes, really), but a fantastic and thought provoking video as usual. Well done Ted-ed.

[stevied]

Polyphemus, the cyclops in the Odyssey, herded sheep. Coincidence?

[aseth]

The pun. The only reason they made this video.

[hazyrory]

Anyone else slightly annoyed that the cyclopamine animation had two eyes

[dinohall]

Shoutout to the sheep farmers who inadvertently gave us a treatment for cancer by wanting to explore the science behind what was happening to their sheep.

[scotthicklin]

It's not just the hedgehog gene, it's the sonic hedgehog gene! Why would you miss the cool part out

[SirusShea]

Don't avoid the truth TED-Ed- people deserve to know that the hedgehog gene SHH is short for Sonic Hedgehog because it was the nineties and those scientists (albeit not the ones who originally discovered hedgehog but the 3 hedgehog genes in the hedgehog family for vertebrates) were The Worst jokers.

[ValeriePallaoro]

While you call it 'the hedgehog gene' it's more appropriately called by it's proper name (as indicated by the letters SHH) Sonic the HedgeHog gene - the joys of being a scientist is that you get to name your new finds. Always do good. And this is very good.

[Masfugo]

In my country when farmer found out their sheep has one eye they will make a show out of it, adding ticket booth and put price to watch them

and people will crazily pay to see it. some even pray on it like it's a miracle. lol

[cpt_nordbart]

Ewe.... those cyclopamine sheeps don't look so cute in reality.

[Imoaninyourroomeverynight]

Saw the actual photos. I need to keep an eye out for nightmares now.

[denisethasder]

-Farmers see one eyed lambs
-“Ewe’ve gotta be kidding me!”

[o.gingras]

That's interesting..! It also kind of explain why these sheep died quickly, since tissus were not created in a proper way. I'm wondering though, there is a recent case of a one eye goat in India, which still lives to many people's surprise. Is it thought that this goat case is related to cyclopamine as well?

[zelly]

The thing from real pictures that surprised me the most was that it's not a small, normal sized eye. It is HUGE. Like the cyclops of legend, the eye is always pictured really big? It's the same for these sheep. Which makes me curious about the legend. Maybe the cyclops myth was based off a real person, very tall with one large eye. Nothing mystical, genes.

[helloimnothing]

Unexpectedly, sheeps with one eye are scary than normal.