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All Female Fish Species Lived For 70,000 yrs w/o Reproducing

news.bbc.co.uk — A fish species, which is all female, has survived for 70,000 years without reproducing sexually, experts believe. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh think the Amazon Molly may be employing special genetic survival "tricks" to avoid becoming extinct.

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  • SteamPowered, on 04/24/2008, -0/+74Lesbian trickery!
    • mtwoar, on 04/24/2008, -2/+9Careful! They have softball bats!
      • rompom7, on 04/24/2008, -2/+7Don't Worry! Send your attack towards their mouth and nose rings. It's their weak point.
      • Andrwmorph, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1And field hockey sticks!
    • stuffradio, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1Tricks are for kids!
  • dtele, on 04/24/2008, -0/+11I cannot help thinking that there may come a day when are no longer required by the females of this planet.
    • Winoria, on 04/24/2008, -0/+14too late.
      • gwenny, on 04/24/2008, -0/+13Yeah, once someone invented that jar opener thingie my need for males vanished. :D
        • NightVortez, on 04/24/2008, -1/+12It's spelled dildo.
        • simpleid, on 04/24/2008, -0/+2Lol damn it, I was just telling someone how if he'd ever catch a girl worth keeping he'd need to be able to open the salsa jars, it was a minimum requirement. Oh this is going to be a let down.
    • trogdor282, on 04/24/2008, -0/+34I hear tell of men used for Snu Snu. But all we have are rumors and subscription to Cosmo.
    • Scynet, on 04/24/2008, -0/+12Pffft, they need someone to take care of these electronic things :)
      • dynelol, on 04/24/2008, -0/+9and people to bitch at.
      • MtheoryX, on 04/25/2008, -0/+1Which electronic things? The electronic things that take care of them?
    • alanr19, on 04/24/2008, -9/+1No longer required? 90% of people are morons and are "No longer required" but they still walk around stealing oxygen from the rest of us.

      Don't crap your pants just yet kid.
    • rompom7, on 04/24/2008, -3/+9We are no longer needed to keep mankind running. But nor are women. That is, if the whole male pregnancy is thing is not a hoax.

      However, I'd like to see women build a skyscraper. I'm not saying that women couldn't do it, I'm saying a massive amount of progress of mankind will be lost if all men die off at once.

      Braces for buried.
      • scojerroc, on 04/24/2008, -1/+2they wouldn't build a skyscraper. mostly because they wouldn't care to. they may also disagree that skyscraper=progress.
        • rompom7, on 04/26/2008, -0/+1Well if technological innovation isn't progress then what is?

          A skyscraper is one example. How about a school/university/college?

          How about a car? Sure, they could use the robotics that men have already put in place in the factories. But what about improving upon those systems, or building new ones?

          On the other hand, men, without having a reason to be successful (aka. the female) would probably slow progress. However since men are wired to be competitive, we'd probably still progress just because we want to beat our competition.
      • trogdor282, on 04/24/2008, -0/+6That was a woman who got a sex change but kept her uterus.
      • MtheoryX, on 04/25/2008, -0/+1Opera duped you; that's not a man, that's your mother.
  • Winoria, on 04/24/2008, -1/+6I could amuse myself all day trying to come up with clever comments for that title.
    • levitron, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1Beat me to it- that was the reason I went to the comment section in the first place. my take was: All/Every Female Fish Species...
  • allaboutdatiki, on 04/24/2008, -4/+5it. smells. fishy ...
    • FDDIcent, on 04/24/2008, -3/+1o wow, you weren't even trying were you?
  • EvilDr.X, on 04/24/2008, -2/+3170,000 years without getting laid? I guess I really shouldn't feel that bad, then.
    • macweirdo42, on 04/24/2008, -0/+5Just think of all those millenia of sexual frustration, passed on from mother to daughter... Damn, those have got to be the angriest fish in the sea.
    • SpencerMc, on 04/24/2008, -0/+4RTFA. They do get laid, just by other species.
      In other words...
      SHE GOT JUNGLE FEVA
      • MtheoryX, on 04/25/2008, -0/+1Horribly inappropriate, but still a tad funny.
  • daniel2e, on 04/24/2008, -1/+18Of course they reproduce, they aren't 70k years old each. Sexual reproduction isn't the only (or even most prevalent) form of reproduction.
    • alanr19, on 04/24/2008, -2/+3You mean penetrative conception isn't the only way. By the articles rationale bacteria also dont reproduce. Rejoice!!!
      • rootneg2, on 04/24/2008, -0/+3Fish do not have penises (penii?) thus there is no "penetrative" conception. Sexual reproduction (as opposed to asexual reproduction) is the correct terminology.

        Typically the female lays a big wad of unfertilized eggs, which the male then comes by and fertilized by releasing sperm into the water nearby, ie external conception/fertilization as opposed to internal; no penetration involved whatsoever. Frogs and most other amphibians use a similar method.
      • rootneg2, on 04/24/2008, -0/+2addendum:

        also, some bacterium can reproduce "sexually" by exchanging bits of genetic code:
        http://www.slic2.wsu.edu:82/hurlbert/micro101/page ...
        this actually accounts for the majority of genetic change in the evolution of bacteria
    • Spuy767, on 04/24/2008, -0/+5The article was misleading because it should have said "All-Female" and used "survived" instead of "lived"
  • diggSJaustin, on 04/24/2008, -0/+27That sound you just heard was all 700 women who read Digg furiously clicking through to the article to look for tips.
    • Nougat, on 04/24/2008, -1/+8700? That's optomistic.
      • dynelol, on 04/24/2008, -1/+1More like drop a 0.
        • bonedead, on 04/24/2008, -1/+2and after that another 0 and the 7, girls aren't real budday!
      • dianebl, on 04/25/2008, -0/+2I don't think so. I personally know of at least 4 women (plus me) who read Digg almost religiously.
      • MtheoryX, on 04/25/2008, -1/+2Is that Optometry humor that I don't get?

        I think you mean optimistic.
        • Nougat, on 04/25/2008, -0/+2Being a pessimist, I never use the word, so I don't know how to spell it.
    • IAmTheGuy, on 04/24/2008, -0/+6http://xkcd.com/322/
  • Smiths, on 04/24/2008, -0/+17Man hating fish.
  • alanr19, on 04/24/2008, -8/+2And thats exactly why they swim around in the dark eating garbage and gossiping with no hope of evolving.

    This is obviously another man-hating Cosmo-science trash article.

    .
  • RyomaNagare, on 04/24/2008, -1/+29All Male Digger Species Lived For 25 yrs w/o Reproducing

    news.bbc.co.uk — A Digger species, which is all male, has survived for 25 years without reproducing sexually, experts believe. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh think the garde Variety Digger may be employing special genetic survival "tricks" to avoid becoming extinct
  • jdavid, on 04/24/2008, -0/+7there are species were males can do the same thing in a crisis.
    • Bhuinga, on 04/24/2008, -0/+12Prison doesn't count and they aren't reproducing there.
    • dynelol, on 04/24/2008, -0/+4Some west-african frogs have been known to change sex in a single sex environment.
      • MtheoryX, on 04/25/2008, -2/+1Oh FFS, we all saw Jurassic Park, stfu already.
        • dynelol, on 04/25/2008, -0/+1MtheoryX, i have chosen NOT to endorse your comments.
    • Jaans, on 06/22/2008, -0/+0But clownfish are born male and only the dominant male changes sex in the event that the previous female dies off.
  • farkis, on 04/24/2008, -14/+1Proof positive that there is a god.
  • humanerror, on 04/24/2008, -0/+18And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why hyphens are important.
  • DeFex, on 04/24/2008, -0/+9they used bicycles. proof that fish need bicycles.
  • robeph, on 04/24/2008, -3/+5Hmmm , while you often see mix breed dogs and such, the part I don't get here, I've never seen mixed breed fish, yet this species somehow "mates sometimes" with males of other species.... Mys find me a goldfish piranha
    • draculthemad, on 04/24/2008, -0/+6Differing breeds of dogs are not different species. they are all "canis familiaris"
      • pakruse, on 04/24/2008, -0/+6Not to be pedantic, but it's usually "Canis lupus familiaris"
        You know, as in a subspecies of wolf
        • gak001, on 04/24/2008, -0/+2But that's three names... what about binomial nomenclature????
    • dianebl, on 04/25/2008, -0/+3Dog "breeds" aren't different species, just isolated gene pools.

      But lots of fish species will interbreed, though they won't necessarily produce offspring. I had a male guppy once that used to follow the Mollys around and try to mate with them. That's all you need.
  • dynelol, on 04/24/2008, -0/+7Malcolm was right. Life found a way.
    • MtheoryX, on 04/25/2008, -0/+2Malcolm is always right. Must go faster, indeed.
  • Hetman, on 04/24/2008, -3/+2I wish they would have gave had more information about the fish. I understand they are still studying it but its like. Perhaps it mates with male fish rarely. That does not seem like a good answer to me.
  • lornali, on 04/24/2008, -1/+1Amazing article.
  • lewhich, on 04/24/2008, -1/+5Isn't the world only 6000 yrs old?

    70,000 yrs, that's a mighty long time - is it in Fish years?
    • SuminderJi, on 04/24/2008, -0/+5huh?
      Are you being sarcastic... I hope you are :(
      • lewhich, on 04/24/2008, -0/+2yes, ofcourse I am ... anyway, do you have any idear how long I fish year is?
  • Brownds, on 04/24/2008, -2/+3Don't need men? Well who will open your jars?
    • rootneg2, on 04/24/2008, -1/+2fish need jars like a woman needs a bicycle.

      ... wait, wrong metaphor.
    • dianebl, on 04/25/2008, -0/+1The jar opener I have mounted under my cupboard? What I need a tall male around for is reaching high shelves. I'm short.
      • MtheoryX, on 04/25/2008, -0/+1Or a ladder/step stool?

        Suggestion proudly brought to you by...a man.
      • abaaa, on 04/25/2008, -0/+1Get a stepping stool, that's what I've got! And it never asks me to make sandwiches either!
  • thingnumber2, on 04/24/2008, -0/+3Title was a bit misleading, but very interesting article.
  • lolinyerface, on 04/24/2008, -5/+3Buried as inaccurate. There is no way they could have survived this long without having a man around to nag.
  • kurtwinter, on 04/24/2008, -0/+6"occasional sex with strangers...to keep alive" - Sounds like a Cinemax movie
  • VitriolAndAngst, on 04/24/2008, -1/+3These fish didn't become extinct until The View started airing on TV.
    It only took one year of eating cheetos and complaining about male fish they didn't have to distract them from their asexual reproduction. Plus, they did look fat in those scales, and nobody wanted to tell them. This spiraled into a life of quiet desperation. Thank goodness there is prozac in the water, or the end would have been ever more tragic.
  • nerdpulse, on 04/24/2008, -2/+0SCISSOR ME TIMBERS!!
  • bernmeister, on 04/24/2008, -0/+2I have to say after reading this, mother nature knows how to stay in the game.
  • AndreRollins, on 04/24/2008, -1/+0Very interesting. I've read somewhere (in some science magazine) that if the male population dropped off the face of the earth that women might evolve to produce asexually as well. Hopefully we will never find out.
  • benonymous, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1How do they know how old the fish are?
  • Yage2006, on 04/24/2008, -0/+4What a simpler world it would be if we got rid of males altogether.
  • liuite, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1asexual reproduction...yawn. reproduction should require drama of courtship, dating, mating, followed by alimony/child support
  • dmallymally, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1I think it's kind of ironic that scientific articles will throw around the word "theory" so loosely and then are astonished to find out that people don't understand the difference between a scientific theory and the normal use for the word theory.
  • telepheedian, on 04/25/2008, -0/+1Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark...
  • tconley79, on 04/27/2008, -0/+0Very cool...talk about girl power
  •  

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