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A video of a kitten that is a dead ringer Ed Sheeran has gone viral on TikTok—and, yes, he looks "purr-fect" tonight.
The footage shows a woman looking into the camera, as a message overlaid on the video reads: "my new kitten LITERALLY looks like Ed Sheeran, help."
The video later shows a kitten with a head of fluffy orange-hued fur, bearing a striking resemblance to the ginger locks of the Grammy Award-winning artist.
A caption shared with the post reads: "in a past life he played the fiddle in an irish band."
How Do Cats Get Their Unique Fur Color and Patterns?
According to the findings of a September 2021 study by researchers at Stanford Medicine, the medical school of Stanford University in California, published in Nature Communications, a unique gene may play a central role in the development of different colors and patterns on all feline fur.
"Color patterns are one of these unsolved biological mysteries; there's no go-to model organism to study it—mice don't have stripes or spots," said Gregory Barsh, one of the authors of the study, in a September 2021 Stanford Medicine article.
"The color patterns and variability that you see in animals like tigers, cheetahs and zebras prompted some central questions for us: What are the developmental genetic mechanisms and the cellular mechanisms that give rise to these patterns and how have they been altered during mammalian evolution to give rise to the amazing diversity of shape and form we see today?," he said in the article.
The researchers in the study observed a thickening of the skin tissue in certain areas of a fetal cat tissue. These thickened portions form a "prepattern" that reflects the color patterns to be seen in the fur of an adult cat. The thick areas show where there will be darker patches of fur, while the thinner areas indicate where the fur will be lighter, the article noted.
"We call this step 'establishment,' and it happens long before color appears and long before hair follicles are mature," Barsh explained in the article.
@jaidenlhughes in a past life he played the fiddle in an irish band #edsheeran #kitten #cat #viral #greenscreen
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'So Accurate'
The latest viral clip has left users on TikTok in stitches, with several saying the resemblance was spot on.
User rachAel said "that MIGHT be ed sheeran," and TUMMYHURTS agreed, saying "that's literally just a picture of ed sheeran."
User ignore my reposts said: "Ed Sheeran rebirthed as a kitten."
User @tylan_dixon wrote: "i wasn't really expecting it to ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE ED SHEERAN BRO I'M DYING."
Bunny noted: "that is actually unbelievable how much that kitten looks like Ed Sheeran."
User @dedpegasus said: "I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD BE SO ACCURATE."
J.p. Jessie wrote: "I was not ready for this. It's so accurate."
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment. This video has not been independently verified.
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
About the writer
Soo Kim is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. She covers various lifestyle stories, specializing in Read more