The Pangea Pixel Story

The Pixel trait has been heating up in the Crested Gecko community with conversations online, in podcasts, and of course at reptile expos. We have seen a lot of interest in the trait and sharing of research and discussion so far, which is incredibly encouraging for this trait and our community of crested gecko breeders. We know releasing our  Tangerine Dreams stirred the pot, and begged the question “What’s up with Pangea’s Pixels?” We know you’re interested, so, here’s our pixel story:

But first! Here is a key to help you understand the document:

• Traits are capitalized: Pixel, Tiger, Pinstripe, etc. 
• Breeding groups are italicized:Tangerine Dream, Glow Stick, Pixel 1, etc.

How It Started

In 2018, Pangea discovered interesting geckos with unusual pattern distribution in our collection. These founding animals were made of hyper-tangerine animals with dark bases and were dubbed  Tangerine Dream. This project was kept fairly quiet and small until recently.  At the beginning of this project, we did not know much about it other than that it was special and we wanted to learn more. 

In 2022, we paired a  Tangerine Dreammale with a Lilly White female. This group was called  Glow Stick as the goal was to produce hyper-tangerine Lilly Whites, which we hoped would glow!  Glow Stick produced ten animals, three of which were Lilly Whites, with one of those three picking up the tangerine trait. Although many non-Lilly Whites from this pair received the tangerine trait, the group was broken up before the 2023 season. 

In 2023, two pairs of our  Tangerine Dream line were actively breeding. These two pairs were known as  Tangerine Dream 1 and  Tangerine Dream 2. These two groups produced 24 babies for that season with 100% of the hatchling phenotypes matching the parent’s main phenotype with minor variations in structure, color, and amount of pattern. See more on these pairing in our Groups section below.

What’s in a Name

While vending the Flora Fauna Conference in 2023, Pangea had some of our  Tangerine Dream animals to show to the community for discussion. While looking at these geckos, some breeders remarked that the animals resembled what many called “Pixels” or “Super Pixels.” At that time, Pangea was not tracking the Pixel trait in the hobby and took these opinions with guarded excitement. Following that show, we were interested in this trait and began tracking and researching what breeders and collectors were saying about and calling Pixel. 

 

After comparing the pixel collection from our two groups to what was being called Pixel online, we began to notice ways to identify what we thought was the same trait.  Based on our observations, most people working with Pixel have the same trait as Pangea, so Pangea adopted the term Pixel as a trait in ourTangerine Dream line.

We gained a keen eye for these patterns through our observations and discovered other breeding groups creating the same Pixel phenotype in 2023. We now have a reason to believe that Pixel is amongst multiple Pangea XXX and Pangea Extreme Harlequin lineages, which is supported by our inheritance theory (see Pixel Inheritance below).

Since then, Pangea has produced many Pixels and we’ve learned a thing or two about the trait.We are excited to offer our findings, so without further ado, let's begin!

How to Understand and Describe the Phenotype.

Pixel is a general pattern disruptor. White and orange patterns appear to disrupt or scatter resembling pixels or static. The edges of the affected pattern are always discretely ‘pixelated’ and do not display smooth edges or lines.

Certain pattern expressions and trait combinations can make distinguishing the appearance of the Pixel trait more difficult. For example, high-coverage patterns can be too dense to produce the same disruption throughout and only show pixelation at the edges of the pattern. Additionally,  pattern color is known to fade as animals grow, and traits like Snowflake may cause blending, disguising the distinctness of pattern disruption from the Pixel trait.

Dorsum

Identifying the Pixel trait is most easily done by looking at the dorsum. This is the most consistently affected area, especially at the dorsal ridges. The affected dorsa have disrupted patterns that can organize laterally or perpendicularly.

Pixel does allow certain typical crested gecko dorsum features to display, including linear formation and Tiger breaks, but not all dorsal traits appear to exist when the Pixel trait is present like chevron or 'S' shaped pattern. 

Pinstripe 

Most Pixels in Pangea’s collection have laterally organized patterning between the dorsal ridges. This expression is often displayed as two thick lines with a thin base-color stripe on the spine.  This expression resembles a “Super-Stripe” without the Pinstripe trait. This project and discussion have not been to debate Super-Stripe theories, however, it is worth mentioning that this display may raise new questions about Super-Stripe.

A Pinstripe Pixel has yet to be documented at Pangea as of publishing this article. Although we at Pangea have not seen animals displaying full Pinstripes and Pixel simultaneously, we are not ruling out the possibility of them appearing together and plan to test this further. 

The animals we can confidently label as Pixel do not have the definitive Pinstripe characteristics. In our population of Pixels, dorsal crests are not strongly raised and organized into a tight line like the Pinstripe trait phenotype. The distinct lack of Pinstripe structural characteristics in our population suggests these traitscan not coexist. 

Most offspring from  Glow Stick (see below) display Pinstripe. We believe these geckos are all heterozygous for Pixel and are working to demonstrate this by breeding them to geckos that are visual Homozygous for Pixel. We expect the outcome of these groups to help inform the Pinstripe-Pixel interaction. 

Laterals

A crested gecko’s laterals are the areas on their sides, between the neck and tail, not including the limbs. On our Pixel laterals, pattern color consistently appears at the ventral ridges and near the dorsum. Pattern color found on the ventral ridge in our Pixel population extends upwards, typical of Harlequin pattern.

Pixel significantly affects patterns on laterals, which can display a range of expressions. This variation depends on the amount of pattern present, if the pattern is more laterally organized, or if there is a significant perpendicular influence from Tiger.  

High coverage expression can prevent pattern distinction since there is no separation, which makes reliably identifying Pixel on laterals more difficult. High coverage patterns can be too dense to produce the same disruption throughout and only show ‘pixelation’ at the edges of the pattern. Unfortunately, this makes identifying Pixel on laterals difficult.

Tiger with Pixel

Tiger and Pixel coexist in individual phenotypes, however, this combination isn’t fully understood. It is unknown if  Pixel is changing only the pattern distribution of Orange Pattern,  White Pattern, and Tiger, or another unknown possibility. We have seen animals with dorsal breaks and lateral patterns broken perpendicularly, similar to what Tiger does on many Extreme Harlequins. Furthering the confusion, we have also observed a mottled pattern on multiple animals, like what some would call brindle. Pixel could be affecting the Tigering, pattern, or both. 

Tail

The breeding community often seeks “het markers” and “tail markers” hoping for an incomplete dominant trait to improve their ability to identify genes and improve breeding outcomes. We have yet to find any tail patterns that are true in all cases. Many animals display a similar tail pattern, where the typical saddling of the white pattern on top and reverse-saddling of the dark on the bottom are evened into a straight border. However, we have noticed this pattern in other animals that do not express the Pixel phenotype or have any known relation to a Pixel, which suggests it is an unrelated trait. 

Very few animals display a connected ‘Y’ as the base of the tail joins the dorsal ridges with a majority having a break in between the tail and dorsal pattern. A majority of our adults have a connection from the dorsum pattern to the tail pattern. 

Inconsistencies in the tail pattern across all subjects suggest Pixel does not uniquely affect the tail pattern. The difference between juveniles and adults is likely due to pattern migration during ontogenesis. The even, straight border between tail colors on some individuals does raise our curiosity, but warrants separate research.

Pixel Inheritance

Our observations indicate the inheritance is recessive. This means heterozygous animals display no indication of the trait and only homozygous animals will express the phenotype without requirements of other genes or traits. The inheritance theory is consistent with the community’s general opinion and results from our breeding projects. Using our working description for the phenotype to identify when Pixel is present, we can extrapolate inheritance information based on the outcomes of breeding these animals. 

Our  Tangerine Dream toTangerine Dream pairings have resulted in 100% inheritance of the main phenotype features. Visual-to-visual pairings always produce a visual.See  Tangerine Dream 1 and  Tangerine Dream 2 below. This consistency in phenotypes and inheritance from multiple groups demonstrates that an inheritable trait determines the phenotype.

When we paired a  Tangerine Dream male with a non-pixel female, none of the produced offspring exhibited the Pixel phenotype.See  Glow Stickbelow. Through this, we can infer that if either of the parents is missing the gene altogether, their offspring will not show the trait. This eliminates the possibility of the pixel genotype being a dominant trait or an incomplete dominant trait because of the known heterozygosity and lack of any Pixel-related phenotypic differences between the offspring.

As previously mentioned, we discovered breeding groups producing phenotypes that matched our description without the parents expressing the same phenotype. This means that non-visuals to non-visuals can produce visual Pixels. For this to happen each parent must have had one copy (heterozygous) of the gene that each contributed, resulting in the offspring having two copies of the gene (homozygous).

Finally, a more recent Pixel project offspring demonstrates the recessive inheritance theory. A male from ourTangerine Dreamline was paired with a female from our  Glowstickline. The male is homozygous for Pixel and the female is heterozygous for Pixel. This pair produced multiple hatchlings displaying the Hyper Tangerine and the Pixel phenotype.See  Pixel 1 below for details. This outcome confirms the mode of inheritance to be recessive by offspring, with one visual parent and one visual grandparent on the opposite side, displaying the Pixel phenotype.

The Future of Pangea Pixel Projects

We have produced many animals that display the Pixel phenotype from multiple lineages, though we still question how it interacts with other traits. To help us understand the trait, improve upon our goals, and increase heterozygosity, we have dismantled our  Tangerine Dream pairs in exchange for new pairs.

Currently, we have several pairs put together for our Pixel project. All our pairs contain one confirmed Pixel and one gecko as a testing variable. Our testing geckos include suspected Pixels, non-visual parents of Pixels (presumed heterozygous), and non-visual offspring of Pixels (heterozygous). Pairs were chosen instead of groups to demonstrate the lineage of each animal with complete accuracy.

We have several goals for these pairs. These goals include creating more outcrosses to expand the Pixel gene pool and improve heterozygosity, testing the mode of inheritance, improving crest and head structure, combining Pixel with new traits, and making more Pixels!

The Pixel trait presents incredible possibilities by combining it with other traits for stunning combinations. We are excited to work with this trait and share our findings with you as we develop more information from our understanding of this inspiring trait. Subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on social media for more Pixel information and availability from Pangea. Head over to our available Pixels and see the possibilities for your next crested gecko!

Groups

These are past and present Pangea Pixel groups referenced above. This section offers further information and specificity for these breeding projects.

Tangerine Dream 1

Tangerine Dream 1 (TD1) was a pair with the male and female displaying Pixel and Tangerine. Each animal has a nearly solid dorsal pattern. The male displays an Extreme Harlequin Pattern and Tigering. The female has a soft mottled Harlequin pattern. 100% of the Tangerine Dream 1 offspring display Pixel and Tangerine. 

Tangerine Dream 2

Tangerine Dream 2 was a trio consisting of one male and two females, each displaying the Pixel phenotype and Hyper Tangerine. The male from this group has a mottled appearance throughout his body. Both females from this group have less dorsal coverage and more broken patterns than their  Tangerine Dream 1 counterparts. 

This group produced nine offspring, each displaying the Pixel Phenotype and Hyper Tangerine. This group of offspring displays mottled/brindled patterns and dorsal breaks while keeping consistent with the Pixel phenotype.

This close-up of thedorsa from  Tangerine Dream 2 parents and offspring exemplifies the pattern disruption of the Pixel trait without the influence of high coverage or solid dorsal pattern. Parents are featured at the top with offspring below. 

Glow Stick

Glowstick consisted of a high-coverage Lily White male and a  Tangerine Dream female. The  Tangerine Dream female is homozygous for Pixel and possibly homozygous for Tangerine (aka Hyper Tangerine). The desaturation of color pattern with age makes determining how prevalent the Tangerine trait is with this individual difficult. All Glowstick offspring phenotypes display Tangerine which infers the dam is homozygous for Tangerine. 

 

Of the 10 offspring from  Glow Stick, all display the Tangerine trait, three display the Lilly White trait, and none exhibit the Pixel phenotype. 

Pixel 1

Pixel 1 is the culmination of our Pixel project bringing together one of our favorite males, the former sire to  Tangerine Dream 2 with a Lily White female from  Glowstick. The male displays the Pixel phenotype Hyper Tangerine and has a mottled appearance throughout his body. The female is a Tangerine Lilly White and is heterozygous for Pixel. This combination of traits has eight possible outcomes seen in the combinations below. 

To date, this group has produced seven hatchlings. Of the first seven offspring from  Pixel 1,two display the Pixel phenotype, two do not display the Pixel phenotype, and three display the Lilly White trait and possibly Pixel. Confirming the Pixel trait with the Lilly White geckos is difficult because it is not well known how the two traits will interact at their young age. Some community members suggest it takes a few months for this interaction to become apparent.