85 million years without sex June 6, 2008
Posted by Al in : educational,interesting , trackback… please insert your own joke or witty comment here.
Right, once that’s out of the way then this is actually an interesting article about bdelloid rotifers – a group of microscopic invertebrates that I had never heard of before. What makes these tiny creatures special is that not only do they not require sex to reproduce, which is not all that unusual, but that they have survived and evolved for such a long period of time without sex. The unusual thing is the amount of genetic variation within the species, and the fact that some of this genetic variance appears to have been absorbed from their surroundings. Who needs science fiction when you can have science like this?
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