IRL virgin birth

[petitfour]

Little did we know when we were younger screaming from the horror of voracious velociraptors in Jurassic Park that art was imitating life, as the movie touched on a pretty crazy concept known as parthenogenesis (or was it that they magically turned male? I don't remember anymore

Comments

[ecchipiro]

German Wikipedia gives this source for turkey parthogenesis:

Olsen MW: Avian parthenogenesis. USDA publication no. ARSNE- 65. Beltsville, MD: USDA, 1975.

Interesting indeed. o_O

[kikayume]

Yes, but genetic diversity often contributes to that. "Clones" are notoriously susceptible to having their entire lineage wiped out by virus, bacteria, etc.

[skalja]

Well, yeah, but clones can also breed faster because you only need one (or, if they pseudocopulate, two can make two sets of babies instead of one set). Again, to rephrase what timmee said, evolution does not have a plan: you can win in the short term by cloning and ultimately lose in the long term by not having enough diversity to survive a virus. Or not. So far these guys (rather, gals!) have made it. But the point is, it goes generation by generation.

Think of it not as "survival of the fittest" so much as "survival of the fittest for this moment in time." What helps you today could kill you tomorrow. (Hi, dinosaurs!)

Does this make any sense?

[kikayume]

No, it makes perfect sense, and I have a thorough understanding of evolution. However, in practice, the cloning thing generally doesn't work out very well. (Which is why we're slated to lose bananas as we know them yet again.) No biggie, there are plenty of evolutionary cul-de-sacs. But it's not generally a winning plan (with few notable exceptions), especially in large populations.

[theamaranth]

maybe mary WAS a virgin. *snicker*

[theamaranth]

maybe jesus WAS a girl.

[vertelemming]

I'm trying to think of something interesting to say, but my brain can't stop staring at the pseudocopulation picture and picturing it as a macro with, "HAPPY LEZBEEANN LIZRDS ARE HAPPY"

[shadowvalkyrie]

You win.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

1) Some reproduction is better than NO reproduction. That alone is reason for a species to have parthenogenesis as an option.

2) Evolution is only desirable in a changing environment. In a static environment, once you have a model that works great, it is advantageous to make exact copies. This is why some species can use either sexual or asexual reproduction: they switch to suit the conditions.

3) I wouldn't jump to any conclusions about parthenogenesis always generating perfect copies. Radiation and other environmental factors can alter genes ... but I'd look for a biological code scrambler that's an alternative to the sex method. The novel _Ammonite_ proposes a virus that allows two females to reproduce together, each modifying the other's offspring. And nature is usually more creative than fiction.