Parthenogenesis - not restricted to messiahs!

[desperance]

"It now appears that at least some female sharks can switch from a sexual to a non-sexual mode of reproduction in the absence of males."

Comments

[farwing.livejournal.com]

That is really nifty. Unfortunately, the link is failing in it's duty to bring me to the article. But I believe you! Is that foolish?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Believing me is inherently foolish: I have been known to lie, and I am occasionally mistaken. On this occasion, though, I have mended the link (which I ganked from shadesong, incidentally) and refer you back to it with confidence. It's just so kooky - "what, no guys around? Ah, let's make babies anyway" - it's got to be true.

[farwing.livejournal.com]

yeah...i actually got to read it from sahdesong's link so...maybe it was just lj being a doof again. :)

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

It's true of a number of fish, as I recall. So to speak. Salmon? And sea horses are just plain ... queer. Male pregnancies.


There's a book called The Difference Between the Sexes which Gwyneth Jones reviewed for... Foundation I think, after an appearance in a conference volume... and it's in Deconstructing the Starships "Sex: The Brains of Female Hyena Twins" where butch and femme lizards are discussed.

[grndexter.livejournal.com]

NO CHILD SUPPORT!!! WHOO HOOOO!!!

{EG}

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Does this suggest new meaning for _Deep Wizardry_?

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

"what, no guys around? Ah, let's make babies anyway" - it's got to be true.

And I thought sterilization and dating women (rather, wanting to date women and not finding any) was enough to keep me from getting pregnant. Maybe I'll just keep taking the birth-control pills, just in case.

Reproduction is *insidious*.

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

I recall a fuss about a fish in the Thames doing the same several years ago, how it was supposed to mean we'd all be walking on the Thames soon, on account of the pollution that mean a girl fish didn't know it needed a boy fish to make baby fishes.

They're catching salmon in Reading these days, I hear (that'll teach 'em to let them escape from the fishmongers - fresh fish, you want fresh fish?)

Of course, on the evolutionary scale, sharks are pretty primitive, not needing to evolve much because they've been the best at what they do for quite a few million years. Why the change? Maybe she just got fed up waiting for him to come home from the pub and decided to start without him.