Creature that has not had sex for 100m years

Times Online - UK ^ | March 20, 2007 | Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A tiny creature that has not had sex for 100 million years has overturned the theory that animals need to mate to create variety.

Analysis of the jaw shapes of bdelloid rotifers, combined with genetic data, revealed that the animals have diversified under pressure of natural selection.

Researchers say that their study “refutes the idea that sex is necessary for diversification into evolutionary species”.

The microscopic animals, less than four times the length of a human sperm, are all female, yet have evolved into different species that fill different ecological niches. Two sister species were found to be living together on the body of a water louse. One of them specialised in living around the louse’s legs and the other stayed close to the chest.

Genetic analysis showed that the two creatures were distinct, a fact backed up by observations that each type had differently shaped jaws.

Asexual animals and plants usually die out quickly in evolutionary terms but the ability of bdelloid rotifers to diversify may explain why they have survived so long.

A specimen trapped in amber has shown that the animals were living at least 40 million years ago and DNA studies have suggested they have been around for 100 million years. Modern Man has notched up about 160,000 years.

It had previously been recognised that asexual animals and plants can evolve through mutations into another species, but only into one species and at the cost of its original form. Bdelloid rotifers have displayed the ability to evolve into many different forms.

[MotleyGirl70]

So: how long has it been married?

ROTFLMAO! I just choked on some lettuce thanks to you!

[bert]

was one of them a leg girl?

[jdm]

Creature that has not had sex for 100m years

[LiteKeeper]

YEC INTREP

[andy58-in-nh]

Well, of course, I exaggerate.
It can't have been any longer than 1,000 years.

[Slings and Arrows]

Where did it go to engineering school?

[SunkenCiv]

Hey! It's one thing to talk about this creature's failure to mate, but this is TMI!

A specimen trapped in amber...

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 3/23/2007. Thanks Ernest.

[Lazamataz]

A tiny creature that has not had sex for 100 million years

HEY!!!!

 

I'm not tiny.

[Larry Lucido]

A specimen trapped in amber

But were you ever trapped in Amber?

[RoosterRedux]

Did they mention me by name?

[null and void]

Bad link. Do not try it again.

[Lazamataz]

I was trapped in Amber Lamps.

[Larry Lucido]

I suppose there are worse places to be trapped.

[tet68]

Reminds me of a joke the punch line goes something
like this....

...If you only have sex once a year, why are you so happy
about it?...

TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT!

[Lady Jag]

Don't be a fossil
Give a hand

[Mr. K]

Laz?

[Altariel]

For the last time, this has all been blown out of proportion!

I wasn’t involved because I was too busy overseeing the unfortunate sinking of Atlan-—

Nevermind. Long, boring story.

[SteveH]

keyboard spew alert

[SunkenCiv]

;’)