Acquiring the same DNA at different ages

[Essam 293]

I'm not sure if this has been brought up before, so I thought I'd ask.

We know that when you acquire an animal or a person that you acquire them at the current age that they are in. For example, if you acquire an adult male lion, you'd morph an adult male lion. You're not going to accidentally morph the lion as a cub or anything, because you acquired the DNA of the lion as an adult.

However, say if you acquired the lion when it was a cub. You'd then morph it into a cub, right? But what if you came back a couple of years later and acquired that same lion again, but now as an adult? The DNA of the lion would still be the same, right? Would acquiring the same DNA again with a different age overwrite the previous DNA with it as a cub? Or would there simply be two sets of the same DNA now, with both the cub and the adult?

It's a random question, I know. But I just thought of it and I wanted to know what you all think. I'm not much of a science guy, so if anyone can shed light into this topic, then that'd be interesting to hear.

[Touquie]

I think that the DNA ages as you go along.  Remember when Jake ran into Tobias in the future?  Tobias was morphed as Ax, but the morph was older.

So if you aquired the same animal at different stages of it's life, it would still be the same when you morphed.  The current age that it is in.

[Essam 293]

But how would that work with insects or animals that only live for a certain number of hours, days, or weeks? Obviously the DNA morph doesn't just die inside the host. Otherwise they'd be morphing zombie ants and flies.

[Chad32]

I think that, even though it's the same DNA, it would work like having two lion morphs. You could concentrate on the image of the cub, or the adult, and even though it's the same lion they would still be separate. The adult wouldn't overwrite the cub.

Truth, haven't you been here long enough to know about the Random Animorphs thoughts thread? For shame.

I think that thread should be pinned, so we can keep up with it better.

[musicman88]

DNA does in fact change with age.  (I went into this in some detail on the old board, so look it up if you really want to.)  Acquiring the same lion at a different age would be like having two different lion morphs.  As for the morphs themselves aging I don't think they would.  Maybe while you're morphed they might, but as soon as you morph into it again it'll revert back to whatever you acquired it as.  Nothlits however are a different story.  Once you get caught in a morph it definitely ages like normal.

[morfowt]

Well pretty much what musicman said, except I don't think while you're morphed it ages either. I think it only starts aging after you become a nothlit.

[RYTX]

second that, though I think if you age in morph before becoming a nothlit.
though unless you find and animal with a two hour life span it's pretty much irrelevant.

though I also ponder: can a morph age out of morph? Ax and Tobias's human morphs start around 13, I know they don't mention it, but wouldn't it be odd to jam a couple of thirteen yros with 16 yros years later???

[Yorick Brown]

I always thought that you simply couldn't acquire the DNA of the same animal regardless of age

[Liz]

second that, though I think if you age in morph before becoming a nothlit.
though unless you find and animal with a two hour life span it's pretty much irrelevant.

though I also ponder: can a morph age out of morph? Ax and Tobias's human morphs start around 13, I know they don't mention it, but wouldn't it be odd to jam a couple of thirteen yros with 16 yros years later???

I remember in #41 Tobias' Ax morph had aged so he looked like Elfangor.  But I think Tobias had become trapped in that morph, right?

I guess the morph only ages if it becomes permanent.

[morfowt]

yes he became an andalite nothlit, although that's not a very good source because it was kind of a dream or illusion.

[musicman88]

I think that morphs would not age when not in use (kinda what I said before).  So Tobias should always be a 13 year old kid.  But there is a bit of leeway on that since we never learned exactly what The Elimist did to him to give him his morphing power back...

[Phoenix004]

I'm not sure if it was ever said, but I always assumed that you couldn't acquire the same individual twice. If so, then this question is void as it would be impossible to acquire the exact same animal a second time.

As for what Touquie said about Tobias' Andalite morph being older in the future when Jake met him, that was simply because Tobias had trapped himself in morph (again) and had been in his Andalite body for several years.

[morfowt]

I think you can it's just that unless there's a big difference that you can see, there's no point. You have to visualize the animal to morph it. if you visualize both animals as looking alike, then there's no point in acquiring it. Am I making sense? Cuz it's starting to sound confusing. it was a lot more clear in my mind.

[wotw2112]

It seems more logical that you can only acquire any animal once.  You get the DNA as of the date and time of the acquisition and morph into that exact animal each time.  Then the clocks start ticking from the same point each morph.  If you get stuck it keeps going.

[Phoenix004]

It seems more logical that you can only acquire any animal once.  You get the DNA as of the date and time of the acquisition and morph into that exact animal each time.  Then the clocks start ticking from the same point each morph.  If you get stuck it keeps going.

Thank you, that's exactly what I thought.