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> Sexual reproduction is a huge evolutionary benefit. It's not clear that this is the case. Many bacteria, fungi and plants do not appear to reproduce sexually
by whyenot 12y ago
> Sexual reproduction is a huge evolutionary benefit.
It's not clear that this is the case. Many bacteria, fungi and plants do not appear to reproduce sexually and are highly successful.
Evolution by natural selection does require that there is variation between individuals, but there is variation even in asexually reproducing species due to mutations and errors in DNA replication.
- peterwwillis 12y agoAnd I think it might work more favorably for ants anyway due to the nature of the colonies. For example, with the 'zombie ant fungus', once the colony detects an infection it will remove infected ants or prevent infections from continuing. Ants are remarkably good at clearing their nests of infections. Naturally this kind of 'communal parasite insulation' would preclude the queen from having to constantly adapt to new threats, and can rely on simpler functions such as mutation to adapt to environmental changes. And anyway, this asexual reproduction is (purportedly) only for queens. The males+queen still participate in sexual reproduction for workers. In addition, ants send their oldest members out the farthest from the nest, so in reality they're constantly being replenished by new variations. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-zombie-ant-fungus-is-even-more-sinister-than-you-thought http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-zombie-ant-fungus-is-ev...