Organism Survives 100 Million Years Without Sex

zyl0x writes "The Times has an interesting article online on the discovery of a 100-million-year-old micro-organism which has survived its entire lifespan without sex." From the article "A tiny creature that has not had sex for 100 million years has overturned the theory that animals need to mate to create variety. Analysis of the jaw shapes of bdelloid rotifers, combined with genetic data, revealed that the animals have diversified under pressure of natural selection. Researchers say that their study "refutes the idea that sex is necessary for diversification into evolutionary species".

Comments

Re:Scientific name

[Brandybuck]

How on earth can you kill someone who hasn't even been born yet?

Your question is full of assumptions, not all of which are warranted. An unborn human being is still a human being, still a member of the species homo sapiens. Biologically, they join the human race at conception. Whether or not they are legal "persons" entitled to government protection is a completely separate issue.

Next you'll be saying woman who have periods are murderers. ...that's another embryo aborted.

Menstruation does not kill an embryo, which is what you seem to be implying. If you want a better example, may I suggest "miscarriage"? Now to answer your amended question, as why we don't call women who have miscarriages murderers, is because those events are unintented, unwillful and accidental. The technical term for an intended miscarriage is "abortion".