GenesWhy does a child look more like its father than its mother, or vice-versa? (Please help me find as many websites as possible to help answer...

Basically, after fertilization of a sperm and an egg
nuclei, the genetic component of the child has been determined, equally by each parent.
However, someone may resemble one parent over the other due to the fact that some traits
are dominant and are expressed in the phenotype of the offspring and some are hidden
because they are recessive. This principle of dominance was determined by Gregor Mendel,
whose work with pea plants started the field of genetics. Also, besides dominant and
recessive genes determining traits, there are also polygenic traits. These are produced
by the combined effects of many genes and also the environment plays a role in how these
genes are expressed. An example in people is height and skin color. The child might not
necessarily reflect the skin or height of either parent as several genes are
contributing to the phenotypic effect. Therefore, how we look is a combination of many
factors including genetics and environment.