Snowflake, a western lowland gorilla, was born in the wild in Equatorial Guinea (map). In 1966 he was taken to the Barcelona Zoo in Barcelona, Spain, where he lived until his death from skin cancer in 2003.

Since then, scientists at Barcelona's Institut de Biologia Evolutiva at the University of Pompeu Fabra have been studying Snowflake's frozen blood and using it to sequence his genome.

In a new study, they announced a twofold discovery about Snowflake's genes that may help scientists understand how he became the only known albino of his species. An animal that does not produce melanin, resulting in little or no color in the skin, hair, and eyes, is considered an albino. (See