The illustrated all creatures Kama Sutra






	Back to gallery Bdelloid rotifer



Bdelloid rotifer Black vulture Deep-sea anglerfish Dolphin Fruit fly Giant garden slug Giant tortoise Giraffe Honeybee Kissing gourami Ladybird Mandrill Octopus Panamanian tree frog Praying mantis Red deer Salamander Seahorse Spotted hyena Stick insect			Among biologists, the bdelloid rotifer has been called an evolutionary scandal, having done without sex – and males – for about 85 million years. Females just seem to produce eggs that hatch into more bdelloids without fertilization. That is, they reproduce asexually, and have done so for a very long time. This contradicts the usual theory that without sex to produce new combinations of genes, a species is doomed. And if the bdelloid rotifers can live for millions of years without – sex why can't the rest of us? (See also Mutation and sex in Dr Tatiana’s introduction to sex).
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