We don't need no stinkin males...80 million years without sex

[Dr. Vincent Quin, Ph.D.]

Nature is so *damn* surprising and wonderful!

only females, 80 million years without sex

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In Mother Nature's edition of the TV reality show Survivor, the
bdelloid rotifers would probably be the last animals standing.
These tiny aquatic creatures can survive high blasts of radiation
and years of desiccation—and they've persisted for tens of
millions of years without sex.

Now, a study published online today in PLOS Genetics hints at how
the bdelloids do it. A new genetic analysis shows that roughly 10%
of the bdelloids' active genes were pilfered from other species,
such as fungi, bacteria, and plants. These foreign genes have
endowed bdelloids with talents that no other animal can boast,
which could help explain their ability to shrug off extreme
conditions of aridity. Ultimately, the bdelloids' appropriation of
foreign genes may hold the key to their success despite celibacy,
which usually results in a species's extinction.

The bdelloid is a "genetic mosaic. It takes pieces of DNA from all
over the place," says study author Alan Tunnacliffe, a molecular
biologist at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
"Its biochemistry is a mosaic in the same way. It's a real
mishmash of activities."
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/11/bdelloids-surviving-on-borrowed-.html
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enjoy
;-)

[Moramarth]

> mishmash of activities."http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/11/bdelloids-surviving-on-...
> ------------------------------------
>
> enjoy
> ;-)

O.K.,so it's more evolved than you are and if it could type it would
make more interesting posts. It's also more likely to have sex than
you are...