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Female shark learns to reproduce without males after years alone
- shawndumas 10y agoParthenogenesis... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis
- saycheese 10y agoParthenogenesis is a natural form of asexual reproduction, though pretty sure it is not the ONLY form asexual reproduction. My guess is at this point it maybe unclear exactly what is going on.
- shawndumas 10y ago"Mum’s genes get passed down from female to female..." That's the clue. Female to female === Parthenogenesis.
- roryrjb 10y agoDr. Ian Malcolm: John, the kind of control you're attempting simply is... it's not possible. If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh... well, there it is. John Hammond: [sardonically] There it is. Henry Wu: You're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will... breed? Dr. Ian Malcolm: No. I'm, I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way.
- elmar 10y agoLife imitates Art.
- maxerickson 10y agoThe author wrote life into the art. Amphibian DNA was stuck into the dinosaurs to make it harder for critics to criticize the parthenogenesis in the book. Amphibian parthenogenesis is well documented: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis_in_amphibians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis_in_amphibians
- logfromblammo 10y agoThe book did not feature parthenogenesis. It featured protogyny. Some individual females became male and bred with the individuals that remained female. This has been observed in West African common reed frogs (Hyperolius viridiflavus), as a result of population pressure. If the pond is a taco fest, some of the frogs bring sausage. This is actually more common in fish than in amphibians, but the book used amphibian DNA.
- arcticfox 10y agoI'm confused why you are downvoted - you appear to be correct.
- bryanrasmussen 10y agothe taco fest sausage thing might have upset some people, I didn't downvote but does seem somewhat gross.
- paulddraper 10y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiVVzxoPTtg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiVVzxoPTtg
- tn13 10y agoWhat he is saying is some creative male will find a way to enter that room.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Arizhel 10y agoProfessional 35+ women in the DC area would probably love this. Currently, after giving up on finding a man that meets their lofty standards (in a dating market where the single women in their age range outnumber the single men by a greater percentage than probably any place except NYC), they turn to IVF with an anonymous donor.
- cbanek 10y ago"Maybe you could tell us who first suggested the idea of reproduction without sex? Um, your wife?" - Wargames https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3NjYhgg-qQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3NjYhgg-qQ
- dogma1138 10y ago"Clever girl..."
- DoodleBuggy 10y agoFascinating, some reptiles and plants do the same.
- JumpCrisscross 10y ago> A female shark separated from her long-term mate... Aw. Do most sharks exhibit long-term pair bonding?
- nitrogen 10y agoJudging from the Planet Earth series, the BBC tends to turn anthropomorphism up to 11.
- sndean 10y agoSome possibly do (http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/9/3/20130003 http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/9/3/20130003), but many of the animals that are said to be monogamous are only ever proven to be 'genetically monogamous'. It's hard to prove whether one male's sperm simply outcompetes other sperm.
- pvaldes 10y agoWe just don't know still the answer to this question.
- agentgt 10y agoWhile this is fascinating I still can't believe we still have never observed many shark species giving birth particularly Great Whites.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- sperm 10y agoWell I'll be damned.
- aclissold 10y ago(serious question) Do any genetic algorithms take something like this into account? Seems like it could be a good way to increase the odds of furthering successful generations.
- kbenson 10y agoWhile possible, I imagine it would require carting around more baggage with each variation, and would also require you simulate scarcity. It's been a long time since I played with genetic algorithms a little in college, but I'm not sure they often model making it hard to find a mate.
- kevinwang 10y agoYeah, sure they could
- bpodgursky 10y agoA lot of genetic algorithms already seed the next generation with copies of the top X fittest individuals, so it's essentially already done.
- dragonwriter 10y agoIIRC, it's common for GAs to have variability as the only source of variation, not crossbreeding. And those that do use crossbreeding usually don't have a concept of the "sex" of an individual algorithm. So, crossbreeding of what are effectively two haploid gametes (a polar body isn't exactly a gamete, but...) from the same diploid individual when mates of the opposite sex are in short supply isn't something that would be directly applicable to most genetic algorithms. You could build a framework for evolving genetic algorithms where this would be relevant and meaningful, but I'm not sure there is any good reason to bother with all the complexity that would be necessary.
- aclissold 10y agoGotcha. It's not that genetic algorithms are meant to emulate the real-world, but rather that they're inspired by it.
- dekhn 10y agoParthenogenesis. A word I first saw in a Canned Heat album (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEaIiB4UV20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEaIiB4UV20 love the jaw harp solo!). Then I asked my bio teacher about it and she explained it. I figured it was something that only happened in "really simple organisms" but then learned it was not uncommon amongst some animals.
- david-given 10y agoe.g. the New Mexico Whiptail Lizard, a.k.a. the 'Leaping Lesbian Lizards': http://guardianlv.com/2015/06/lesbian-lizards-a-hybrid-species-out-of-new-mexico/ http://guardianlv.com/2015/06/lesbian-lizards-a-hybrid-speci... They get the nickname because despite every member of the species being female (and, except for minor mutational differences, clones of each other), they still engage in faux-mating behaviour with each other --- they need the stimulation to ovulate.
- dexwiz 10y agoSame situation, different band. Shriekback's 1985 song, Nemesis. [1] Priests and cannibals, prehistoric animals Everybody happy as the dead come home Big black nemesis, parthenogenesis No one move a muscle as the dead come home [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNA4MDc9U50&feature=youtu.be&t=52 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNA4MDc9U50&feature=youtu.be...
- BadassFractal 10y agoRecommend reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Queen:_Sex_and_the_Evolution_of_Human_Nature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Queen:_Sex_and_the_Evo... if you are interesting in the topic. It goes way in depth into this and many other common reproduction strategies.
- greens231 10y agothis was reported first in 2011: https://www.jumeirah.com/en/jumeirah-group/press-centre/press-releases/press-releases-for-2011/jumeirahs-zebra-shark-is-first-of-its-species-to-reproduce-through-parthenogenesis/ https://www.jumeirah.com/en/jumeirah-group/press-centre/pres...
- nekopa 10y agoThe main point in this article was that the shark did this after having had babies with a mate before. That hadn't been observed in this species.
- jug5 10y agoMaybe she found the lord
- joeskyyy 10y agoProbably stupid question, but I'll ask since others may have the same question: Would all the offspring in this case be female? I'm blanking on my old biology knowledge that's stored somewhere in the cold storage of my brain haha
- cbr 10y agoYes. There aren't any Y chromosomes available.
- ubernostrum 10y agoMale chromosomes aren't needed to make males. Several kinds of fish change sex during their lives (as explained here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13430247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13430247). And in some types of insects any unfertilized egg develops male, allowing a lone female to produce a male offspring to mate with (at which point her fertilized eggs develop female). And then there are reptile species in which sex is determined by the temperatures the egg is exposed to as the embryo develops. And then... and then... Sex determination is way more complex and messy than people like to think it is.
- alextheparrot 10y agoDepends on the sex determination system. XY vs ZW vs XO would determine it. XY would mean only female, ZW would mean both, XO would mean both or only one depending. Not sure what sharks are, some fish are ZW. For the interested, ZW is the inverse of XY, while XO relies on X chromosome count to determine sex.
- ubernostrum 10y agoLike the other comment said, depends on the sex determination system. Which in fish can get complicated -- there are quite a few types of fish which undergo sex changes as a result of the environment they find themselves in. Anglerfish (which become male if they find an adult female early in life, otherwise female) are one well-known example. Clownfish are another: they live in hierarchical groups where the dominant fish becomes the lone female and breeds with the top male. If the female leaves or dies, the previous top male then becomes female and breeds with the previous #2 male.
- phreenet 10y ago>One possibility was that Leonie had been storing sperm from her ex and using it to fertilise her eggs. But genetic testing showed that the babies only carried DNA from their mum, indicating they had been conceived via asexual reproduction. In this form of asexual reproduction are the babies genetic clones of the mother?
- zaroth 10y agoFrom BBC via Google's infobox; Asexual reproduction needs only one parent, unlike sexual reproduction, which needs two parents. Since there is only one parent, there is no fusion of gametes and no mixing of genetic information. As a result, the offspring are genetically identical to the parent and to each other. They are clones.
- maxerickson 10y agoI haven't figured out if it is all sharks or not, but apparently in many previous observances the offspring have only been half clones of the mother. The genes all come from the mother, the offspring just ends up with less genetic diversity than the mother. The technical term is "automictic parthenogenesis". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis#Automictic_parthenogenesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis#Automictic_par...
- abandonliberty 10y ago>just ends up with less genetic diversity than the mother "just"... In humans, even a small loss in genetic variability such as cousin mating 1.5% is bad enough that we have laws against it in nearly every society. Charles II, the last Habsburg king of Spain, had lost 25% genetic diversity and was mentally and physically disabled, and infertile. This genetic loss is equivalent to parent-offspring or sibling mating. Some animals, like lab mice, can survive without genetic diversity, but they are much less fit and difficult to raise. Your half clone would have lost nearly 100% of its genetic diversity. A near-full clone mechanism exists which would preserves genetic diversity. We'd have to sequence this shark to find out.
- nice1 10y agoFake news?
- irrational 10y agoHow exactly did she _learn_ to do this? Is there a shark manual on asexual reproduction that she has been boning up on?
- codazoda 10y agoShe probably didn't and that makes the headline clickbait. At the end of the article it points out that we probably just haven't observed this because we aren't looking for it. Sharks are known to produce offspring asexually.
- Vampires123432 10y agolol, boning
- sctb 10y agoThis account has been posting a lot of uncivil or unsubstantive comments. Please stop and (re-)read the guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- wildchild 10y agoThe amount of bullshit that comes from so called scientists nowadays is ridiculous. I would believe that female shark can find a way to pleasure itself without males after years alone.
- facepalm 10y agoSo gender is cultural, after all!
- EdHominem 10y agoLearns how? Horrible title. As if the shark tried many times but finally discovered this one simple trick...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]