The deep blue sea; life before the dinosaurs; I've been renting these BBC nature and history documentaries, and it's got me thinking: how come, after millions and millions of years, do all species, human, plant, animal and in between, need a pair of creatures, connifers, capsicum or what have you, to create the next generation? Why haven't living things evolved the ability to produce their own offspring, independant of any other cellular matter? I would imagine that to be a powerful evolutionary advantage that must have emerged in some form among evolving organisms. I mean if something as complex as vision came up 550 million years ago, why not a sac of sperm in a female, or ovaries in a male? Even flowers need to pollinate--and bees do it for them! Anyway, I'm not complaining... here're some thoughts off the top of my head:
1) Life is so full of suffering, even ice-cold evolution thought a little sticky pleasure was in order.
2) All creatures like sex so much that the ones making their own babies got really depressed about all the fun they were missing (then again, "I'll show them; those sex-maniacs, I'll copulate by myself my own army! And then they'll see who's got real appeal!)
3) Duality is a fundamental attribute of existence--without two there cannot be one.
4) There is a physical impossibility of there being stuff of both sexes in one organism; like water being ice at the same time. huh?
5) Two heads are better than one.
6) Never back up your computer and leave all the files on the same hard disk. Put them somewhere safe.
If you're an evolutionary biologist; clue me in. Even if you're not, make a comment.
3 comments:
earthworms reproduce asexually, and actually a lot of other simple organisms (including some plants) do too. worms do it by squirting out sperm and then sliding by and rubbing their vaginas against it (further on down the line).
but it keeps organisms too simple and doesn't allow for much variety, hence sexual reproduction evolved as THE way to do it. lots of chances for different, and possibly better, traits to spring up.
-Pierce
hmmmm. two sets of genes; added complexity. More possibility for change. Evolution seems to be promoting itself. That's interesting. Good comments.
Now suppose there was an injury, perhaps an impact of some sort, a punch in the "right" position which ruptured the sac of sperm, and what you have is all these sperm madly swarming all over the eggs, penetrating them all, and so within a very short time there are multiple simultaneous gestations taking place, so the creature has to consume vast quantities of food in order to provide enough nutrients for the growing foetuses, and in doing so it not only becomes enormous but also creates a huge slurry of waste, and this engulfs the entire local environment, and brings traffic to a standstill, which as we know is not a good thing, so to put it simply the corrupt Western governments in collusion with the oil companies cannot let it happen.
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