- cross-posted to:
- news@hexbear.net
- cross-posted to:
- news@hexbear.net
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7777980
A new study has now provided the first proof of an ant species that lacks both workers and males and consists exclusively of queens.
💅💅💅💅
Yeah I read it, I’m saying that if an animal is only reproducing via cloning forever, it’s an evolutionary dead end, because they will have completely lost the ability to adapt to environmental changes
Not necessarily: mutations will still happen. But there will not be any genetic crossing over that will contribute to greater variance.
How many animals can you name that reproduce only asexually? The rate of evolution in an asexually reproducing species will always be significantly slower than a species that reproduces sexually, and over time it will be out-competed.
Again: not necessarily. That there are still asexually-producing organisms suggests that it’s not enough of a disadvantage for the environment they’re in.
This form of reproduction can also be an advantage: the rate of reproduction tends to be faster and more offspring are produced. In the case of this organism, instead of one queen producing all the offspring, every ant is able to produce offspring.
tl;dr: it isn’t the case that sexual reproduction is always favoured over asexual reproduction. Evolutionary pressure isn’t fixed like that.
Again, what other animals are there that reproduce only asexually? Of course there can be advantages to reproducing asexually, however every other multicellular animal that does it also reproduces sexually at times, because those that don’t reproduce sexually have gone extinct
From some quick research just now, all these species are female-only and reproduce asexually:
It’s nowhere near as common as sexual reproduction, but it doesn’t mean it’s an evolutionary dead-end.
Plenty of sexually-reproducing species have gone extinct too: that’s not an argument that sexual reproduction is unfavourable.