The Leatherback morph in Bearded Dragons is caused by a single copy of a mutant gene, which appears to interfere with scale formation during embryonic development. Dragons showing this trait have scales reduced in size, giving them a much smoother and less spiky appearance. The smaller scales can lead to slight improvements in colour, but the difference is not as dramatic as in a morph such as Hypo.

The reduced scales can be clearly seen in this juvenile Leatherback:

 

Leatherback is inherited in a co-dominant fashion. Because of this, a "het" animal is a Leatherback - the homozygous form is a Silkback. It is not possible for a Dragon to be "het Leatherback" without looking like a Leatherback! Don't get caught out by people advertising "het Leatherbacks" or "Leatherback siblings" which are normally scaled but more money than usual. These Dragons do not carry the Leatherback gene. The exception to this are the so-called "Recessive Leatherbacks" being produced by a few US breeders - this trait (apparently separate from the more common Leatherback / Silkback gene) behaves recessively, so only a Dragon with two copies of the gene is visually a Leatherback.

There are also so-called "US Smoothie" Dragons available. These appear the same as Leatherbacks and are compatible with Leatherbacks (US Smoothie x Leatherback will give a proportion of Silkbacks), so to all intents and purposes are the same - it seems to be the same kind of mutation in the same gene which causes "US Smoothie" and "Leatherback". It's conceivable that they are in fact exactly the same trait with two different names.

Contrary to a myth often spread around online forums, Leatherbacks weren't created by "decades of inbreeding". An unusual-looking Dragon randomly turned up in a clutch hatched by an Italian breeder. He grew it to adult size and bred it to a normal Dragon, getting roughly half normally-scaled Dragons and roughly half Leatherbacks. The mutation would likely have occurred in either the egg or the sperm of the parents of the original Leatherback - it was a one-off mutation, with no inbreeding taking place!

 

Like all "simple" traits, Leatherback is compatible with other traits. This gives even more scope for novel combinations, such as in this young Red / Orange Hypo Leatherback. He shows high red-orange colouration (selectively-bred), along with the Leatherback trait (single copy of a co-dominant gene) and the Hypo trait (two copies of a recessive gene).

 

 

Leatherback is a morph that we will be working with in the coming months, starting with Leatherback het Translucent and Hypo Leatherback het Translucent in early 2010. Check out our Future Plans to see what projects are coming up.