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An aquarium accident may have given this crayfish the DNA to take over the world
Science Mag ^ | Feb. 5, 2018 , 11:00 AM | Elizabeth Pennisi

Posted on 02/05/2018 2:08:22 PM PST by BenLurkin

The marbled crayfish is the only crustacean that reproduces asexually, with the all-female species making clones of itself from eggs unfertilized by sperm...

Since its discovery in 1995 in Germany, the marbled crayfish has spread across Europe and into Africa in huge numbers. “They eat anything—rotten leaves, snails or fish broods, small fish, small insects," says Frank Lyko, a molecular geneticist at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg. “This crayfish is a serious pest,”

...

Lyko and his colleagues sequenced genomes of about a dozen marbled crayfish from different parts of the world and performed less detailed genetic analyses of two dozen more from across Madagascar. At 3.5 billion DNA bases in length, the crustacean’s genome is bigger than the human genome, but contains about the same number of genes, 21,000, they report today in Nature Ecology & Evolution. 

...

As suggested by some preliminary evidence, the marbled crayfish has three sets of 92 chromosomes, not the usual two, and each set is essentially a version of the chromosomes belonging to the slough crayfish (P. fallax). Two of the three sets of chromosomes are virtually identical, but the third is different enough that Lyko’s team concludes the marbled crayfish likely arose from the mating of two slough crayfish from different regions of the world thrown together in an aquarium. One must have had an abnormal egg or sperm that retained two copies of its chromosomes instead of the usual single set that is in such germ cells, Lyko explains. The bringing together of the two distant slough crayfish enhanced the genetic variation within the new clonal “species.” Such a union “would never happen in the wild,” he asserts.

(Excerpt) Read more at sciencemag.org ...


TOPICS: Pets/Animals; Science
KEYWORDS: 1995; bcw; crawdads; crayfish; germany; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; marbledcrawdads; marbledcrayfish; sloughcrawdad; sloughcrayfish
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To: BenLurkin

How do they taste?


21 posted on 02/05/2018 2:28:26 PM PST by Zarro (Dead Cruz, the Slimy Ooze. Hat tip: DoughtyOne and Pray All Day)
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To: Red Badger

LOL


22 posted on 02/05/2018 2:28:54 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: BenLurkin
Invest in nets...

...and crockery.

23 posted on 02/05/2018 2:30:48 PM PST by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamiin Franklin)
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To: BipolarBob

>>I think I saw this movie. It didn’t show Kurt Russel dying in the end . . . . but it didn’t look good.<<

Outer Limits episode: The Sand Kings.

The original (Russell was in the remake) scared the hell out of me as a kid.


24 posted on 02/05/2018 2:31:38 PM PST by freedumb2003 (obozo took 8 years to try to destroy us. Trump took 1 to rebuild us. MAGA!!)
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To: BenLurkin

Every now and then you have to clear the decks.


25 posted on 02/05/2018 2:33:40 PM PST by Delta 21 (Build The Wall !! Jail The Cankle !!)
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To: BenLurkin

You’re saying that, without the males to attract for reproduction, that the females just eat and eat and eat?


26 posted on 02/05/2018 2:34:55 PM PST by OrangeHoof (Donald Trump: Doing the work American politicians just won't do.)
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To: BenLurkin

Spawn of native Floridians conquers the world...


27 posted on 02/05/2018 2:36:43 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: freedumb2003

Guardians of the galaxy 2?


28 posted on 02/05/2018 2:37:13 PM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Red Badger

Yep, dem coonasses take good care in makin gumbo!


29 posted on 02/05/2018 2:38:23 PM PST by Delta 21 (Build The Wall !! Jail The Cankle !!)
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To: Zuse

Yes. Good eatin’!


30 posted on 02/05/2018 2:38:24 PM PST by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Screw The NFL!!!!!! My family fought for the flag!)
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To: Red Badger

I remember eating one like that 45 years ago - was a 21 pounder.


31 posted on 02/05/2018 2:52:33 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: BenLurkin

32 posted on 02/05/2018 2:53:31 PM PST by rfp1234 (I have already previewed this composition.)
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To: BenLurkin

Marbled Crayfish

33 posted on 02/05/2018 2:56:28 PM PST by blam
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To: Zarro

> How do they taste?

Being clones, I expect they all taste the same.


34 posted on 02/05/2018 3:05:44 PM PST by Flatus I. Maximus (Hillary for Prison!)
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To: BenLurkin

Why do these things intent on taking over the world always seem to come from Germany;?


35 posted on 02/05/2018 3:14:58 PM PST by mikrofon (Marvelous Monday BUMP)
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To: BenLurkin

The YECs say we’ve never seen a new species evolve...


36 posted on 02/05/2018 3:25:07 PM PST by null and void (What do the democrats stand for?)
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To: BenLurkin

I for one welcome our Crayfish overlords.


37 posted on 02/05/2018 3:25:16 PM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (The first step in ending the war on white people is to recognize it exists.)
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To: Flatus I. Maximus

Taste funny.

Oh wait, that’s clowns.

nvrmnd


38 posted on 02/05/2018 3:27:22 PM PST by null and void (What do the democrats stand for?)
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To: BenLurkin
I recently discovered that Michigan is abound with an invasive species of crayfish called the "rusty crayfish". They've been here for years and are multiplying.

I guess they are easy to trap but more importantly, they're great eating...............The word needs to be spread far and wide!

39 posted on 02/05/2018 3:34:38 PM PST by Hot Tabasco (My cat is not fat, she is just big boned........)
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To: freedumb2003
Outer Limits episode: The Sand Kings.

I remember it, it was great. The remake series of the Outer Limits had great episodes, I was disappointed when they were discontinued........

40 posted on 02/05/2018 3:36:49 PM PST by Hot Tabasco (My cat is not fat, she is just big boned........)
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