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Yeah, I found that surprising as well. Most of the other species mentioned in the article (other than the whiptail lizard) produce males when they reproduce ase
by kijin 12y ago
Yeah, I found that surprising as well. Most of the other species mentioned in the article (other than the whiptail lizard) produce males when they reproduce asexually, perhaps so that they can return to sexual reproduction once the males are mature. Producing more females when there's a shortage of males doesn't seem to be a particularly useful trait, but maybe it's too early to generalize too much on the basis of what is already highly exceptional.
- vorg 12y ago> Producing more females when there's a shortage of males doesn't seem to be a particularly useful trait Given that mammal females are XX and can only parthenogenesize females, never males, because of the lack of any Y chromosome, perhaps that's why mammals don't reproduce asexually frequently compared to ZW birds and other ZW animals.