Posted on 02/06/2018 3:48:12 AM PST by sodpoodle
Most species of crayfish reproduce the same way that humans do: by having sex. But one species of crayfish that evolved out of the pet trade can do something unique—clone itself—and this ability has led populations of the crustacean to spawn out of control.
For a study published today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution , researchers sequenced the genomes of 11 marbled crayfish, both from the wild and from the pet trade. They found that the genomes in all 11 animals were nearly identical, meaning that they don’t reproduce sexually, and that they are officially a different species than their North American mother species, Procambarus fallax.
“Here we have an evolutionary event that has happened only a very short time ago,” Frank Lyko, Head of divisions of epigenetics at the German Cancer Research Center told Newsweek. “Certainly there will be some changes, genetic changes over time, that will make it more normal. At this specific time point in evolution it’s very unique.”
Lyko explained that forming a new species usually takes evolution thousands of years or more. However, it was only a few decades ago that the North American species of crayfish entered the pet trade, and now a different, exceptional species has emerged from them.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
The trouble with tribbles.
I forsee crayfish farms in the future.......
Self cloning crayfish quickly become a scourge in home aquariums and are extremely difficult to get rid of. They eat plants, kill fish, and are a dirty nuisance in addition to multiplying like wildfire. They are a perfectly terrible aquarium resident.
Order up a case each of Miami Heat and cajun seasoning, andouille, corn, garlic, onions, taters, lemons and whatever else, put the boil on to boil and sent out for a wholw bunch o beer
KYPD
*Everglades Heat
That’s a sight better than eating bugs like some lefty Hollywood types would have us do. Warning, kinda creepy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3UqLAtdZ04
That there plate needs some cob corn and red taters!
Other than they don’t need a mate, how are these crawfish more invasive than any other type of crawfish?
Strikes me as a Southern crayfish farmer’s dream. They look nice size too.
Are they big enough and tasty enough for Cajun food?
We can only hope they mutate and grow 40 times larger.
Fixing shrimp and mushroom Alfredo as I type;)
They’re exceedingly edible ... what’s the problem?
I seem to recall from several years ago that there was a similar arthropod “crisis” brewing. Apparently, huge Red Crabs were overrunning the other cold-water crab species up in the arctic, and proliferating out of control.
And while the eco-greenies were tearing their hair out, the reaction from anyone with a sense of pragmatism was “bring on the clarified butter”. Yes, it’s important to try to prevent entire species from being wiped out, especially when it’s something that can be attributed to human interference. But the world isn’t static. Just ask the trilobites, or the residents of Doggerland.
I know we had a horror movie in the making.
They are not terrestrial. They aliens here to conquer!
(Cue Georgi Tsoukalos - the “It’s Aliens” guy).
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