Which Animal Has The Ability To Reproduce Without Mating

Immaculate conceptions are nothing special in nature. Well, non actually. However, the ability to reproduce without a male taking part in fertilization, called parthenogenesis, is more common than you lot might recall.

See Also: 10 Plausible Theories For Our Sexual Desires

Surprisingly, many species accept been known to reproduce asexually, and nosotros're not simply talking single-celled organisms, either. A number of plants and even animals tin do so. Here are ten of the virtually intriguing animals that can reproduce without sex.

10 The Cape Honey Bee

In that location are xx,000 species of honeybees across the planet just only one that has the ability to reproduce without a need for male bees. The Cape honey bee, or Cape bee, (Apis mellifera capensis) is a South African species capable of reproducing via a process called thelytoky. Thelytoky is a form of parthenogenesis that allows worker bees to lay diploid, female eggs. The resulting bee will always exist female and is born without the egg needing to be fertilized.

Only a small number of Cape bee workers express the thelytoky phenotype to reproduce asexually, simply they can maintain population heterozygosity, which means the newly hatched bees aren't direct clones of the parent. Instead, they characteristic variant sets of chromosomes, making them new, unique individuals within the hive. The bees often lay eggs when new workers are needed or when it becomes necessary to hatch a new queen.^[1]

9 Water Flea

The near common species of water flea, Daphnia pulex, found in the waters throughout the Americas, Commonwealth of australia, and Europe, holds a few notable distinctions in marine science. It is a "model species" and was the offset crustacean to have its entire genome sequenced. It also has the ability to reproduce through a process called cyclical parthenogenesis, which allows information technology to alternating between both sexual and asexual reproduction.

Observations of Daphnia pulex indicate the species volition partake in cyclical parthenogenesis whenever weather are favorable in the water. If an individual happens to see up with a member of the opposite sex, they get decorated, but if they don't, information technology doesn't matter. A water flea that decides to create offspring will do then by producing a genetically identical clutch of eggs consisting entirely of females. While the genetic lawmaking remains the same, this offers a larger population of females to spread those genes throughout the environment, resulting in an exponential growth of the overall population.^[2]

8 Goblin Spiders

If your nightmares weren't bad enough already, here'southward a type of spider capable of reproducing itself! Don't go out and buy a flamethrower just yet—Oonopidae, also known as goblin spiders, are a family of some 1,300 species that measure only between 1 and 3 millimeters. Parthenogenesis has been observed in merely a few of the species, including Triaeris stenaspis, which originated in Iran but has distributed throughout Europe. They are simply ii millimeters in size, so they don't pose much of a threat to people . . . if they can fifty-fifty see them. Interestingly, there have never been whatsoever males institute anywhere, which is why scientists believe they reproduce entirely asexually.

Female person members of T. stenaspis reproduce in the same way equally the Cape honey bee: thelytokous parthenogenesis. They lay a female diploid egg, which spawns a new female individual. Each subsequent generation demonstrates lower fertility rates, but the species continues to reproduce in this fashion with sufficient genetic diverseness in their offspring populations.^[3]

vii The Quilted Melania

For anyone who has ever owned an aquarium and seen an unwelcome visitor in the class of a small-scale snail, they likely suffered at the easily of Tarebia granifera, commonly called the quilted melania. These pocket-size freshwater snails first originated in Southeastern Asia but take become an invasive species beyond much of the world. They can be found in warm waters in places like Hawaii, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Southward Africa, Texas, Idaho, Florida, and other Caribbean islands.

These snails reproduce in two ways: parthenogenetic and ovoviviparous, which means that their embryos don't leave the female until they are gear up to hatch. The result oft materializes in a snail that reproduces itself, with its clone offspring able to quickly reproduce such that they can take a population explosion in a small area . . . similar an aquarium. These characteristics make the snail an effective invasive species. At that place are males constitute in populations, just many of them have nonfunctional genitalia. This suggests that parthenogenesis is their main means of reproduction.^[iv]

6 Marbled Crayfish

The most interesting thing near the marbled crayfish isn't that it reproduces itself asexually; information technology's that the species didn't be until sometime in the late 1990s. Information technology only exists now thanks to a single mutation in a parent species that resulted in the speciation of a brand-new type of crayfish. These little critters are rather beautiful and accept made their way into the pet market in Deutschland, only that presented a small problem: Marbled crayfish clone themselves by the hundreds!

A unmarried female marbled crayfish can lay hundreds of eggs at one time, then people who place one into an aquarium soon find themselves in possession of more than than they tin handle. As a upshot, the species has become invasive all over the world, with especially damaging furnishings in places like Madagascar, where millions of clones threaten native wildlife. They have been compared to Star Expedition 'southward tribbles, which reproduce uncontrollably, and while they are interesting, they represent a unsafe threat to a number of ecosystems.^[5]

5 New Mexico Whiptail

Of the approximately one,500 known species capable of reproducing via parthenogenesis, most are plants, insects, and arthropods. The ability to reproduce without fertilizing an egg is rare in vertebrate species, but it has been observed in a small number of reptiles. The New Mexico whiptail is an interesting case because the entire species is completely devoid of males. New Mexico whiptails are hybridized offspring of two other species where males are present: the fiddling striped whiptail and the western whiptail.

The hybridization of these lizard species doesn't allow for salubrious male offspring to form, just that doesn't terminate the New Mexico whiptail from marching on and forming its own species, which is even recognized as the country reptile of New Mexico. The female offspring that make up the population of New United mexican states whiptails are able to lay upward to four unfertilized eggs in the summer. These and so hatch approximately two months afterwards into new female members of the population.^[6]

iv The Edible Frog

The aptly named edible frog (Pelophylax esculentus) is a common European species of water or green frog. Information technology is the primary species used in France for food, as its legs are rather tasty when prepared properly. These frogs reproduce through a process of hybridogenesis, which works in a manner similar to parthenogenesis. Females create hybridogenetic hybrids, which exclude i one-half of the parent genes to create a new generation of offspring with half of the genes produced clonally and the other half passed sexually.

This process of reproduction takes the genetic material from the father's side and recombines it into something completely new. While this isn't exactly parthenogenesis or asexual reproduction merely a bracket of the process, information technology's on this list due to the nature of the offspring. Each subsequent generation carries the mother's Dna while only conveying a hybridized genome of the begetter. The next generation tin can produce males, merely their Dna is, in a sense, a clone of their female parent'southward with their father's recombined into something the female parent created for her offspring.^[7] Information technology'south a weird style of making babies, simply at least they taste good.

3 Komodo Dragons

Komodo dragons accept long fascinated people due to their incredible size and comparison to ancient reptiles long extinct from the World. They are the largest living species of lizard and can abound upwards to 3 meters (x ft) in length and weigh in at a whopping seventy kilograms (154 lb). They prey on large animals like deer and pigs merely could probably have out a human if they felt like it, thanks to the toxins independent in their bites. These reptiles weren't known to reproduce parthenogenetically until 2005, when a specimen at the London Zoo laid eggs afterwards having had no contact with whatever males for over two years. Initially, it was suspected that she stored sperm until it was needed for use, but this was proven false when genetic testing confirmed there was no boosted genetic material present.^[8]

The same thing has happened to various other female Komodo dragons in captivity all over the earth. Many of the eggs that hatch stop upwardly being male, which is unusual for an animal reproducing asexually. They achieve this via their ZW chromosomal sex-determination organization, which differs from the mammalian system of XY chromosomes. When a Komodo Dragon enters an isolated area like an isle (or terrarium), she tin can produce male offspring to mate with. While this is not something humans should e'er practise, for the dragons, it creates a viable population that allows the species to proceed, though it does dethrone genetic diverseness.

2 Turkeys

Well-nigh people don't recollect near turkeys very often, though they eat their meat throughout the yr. Turkeys are capable of reproducing via parthenogenesis when females are separated from a male person population. Interestingly, a female turkey placed within earshot of males volition reproduce asexually far more than often than when she is kept away from them. The process is rare in wild turkeys, just it has been noted to occur in various populations and is far more common in domesticated populations in farms.^[9]

When an egg hatches without the benefit of a male, it is always built-in male person. While a female laid the eggs, the male chicks she hatches are all genetic clones of her, with the only deviation being the sex. Turkey breeders take taken note of this and accept worked to force parthenogenesis in females so that various genetic traits like larger breasts are passed downwardly to her offspring.

1 Zebra Shark

It seems the more than complex the organism, the less likely information technology will be able to reproduce asexually. Sharks are certainly complex, but at that place have been noted examples of zebra sharks reproducing without bothering to get any of that pesky DNA from a male counterpart. Zebra sharks are docile nocturnal fish that have long interested humans, simply it was just recently that we observed parthenogenesis in the species.

The first fourth dimension was with a shark named Leonie, which had been living in an aquarium apart from any males for several years. After iv years of separation, she laid eggs that produced three offspring.^[10] Since that first observation, other zebra sharks accept been shown to produce offspring without a mate. Information technology appears that they are able to do this regardless of their mating conditions. Several specimens have been noted to produce offspring containing only their genetic code even when in the presence of males in their habitat.

Source: https://listverse.com/2018/02/13/10-animals-able-to-reproduce-via-immaculate-conception/

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