No Sex Please We're Rotifers
By Anne Pawsey
It seems fair to say that the human race is so obsessed with sex the idea of going without it seems nigh on impossible. Yet there are creatures who mange to do with out it for ages – in one case 40 million years.
This creature is the bdelloid rotifer, a tiny creature that lives in wet and wonderful environments such as ponds, lakes, mosses and lichens. They reproduce by cloning themselves, the mothers laying eggs that are genetically identical to them; this means t
This creature is the bdelloid rotifer, a tiny creature that lives in wet and wonderful environments such as ponds, lakes, mosses and lichens. They reproduce by cloning themselves, the mothers laying eggs that are genetically identical to them; this means t