What if I told you there was an animal that could clone itself? That's beyond what we think of futuristic and high tech, I mean wouldn't we at least expect geneticists would have to be involved in the cloning process? What if nature had already moved beyond that point, wouldn't that perk your interest?
Well there's an animal found in Europe that is a mutant. It has developed an ability to clone itself (or “reproduce asexually,” if you’re into giggling) with breathtaking speed.
If this were the case with the human race the problems the world is already facing due to overpopulation would look dwarfed in comparison to the alternative.
Fortunately, the mutant animal in question is a crayfish. Luckily crayfish are very tasty so there are people ready to 'take care of the problem' and by the way, what did you say was for dinner tonight?
According to the “New York Times,” (which is using Cajun-animal-cloning stories to distract us from the FBI agents who kept texting each other the blueprints for the Obama/Illuminati global takeover) the animal is known as a “marbled crayfish.” It’s about six inches long and currently numbers in the millions, which is a significant upgrade from about 25 years ago, when it numbered zero.
Around that time, two otherwise unremarkable crayfish in the American south had crayfish babies, and these babies contained a mutation that let them reproduce without the traditional and generally bothersome input from a male. Before long, these mutant crayfish were found in a German pet shop, where they were turning into a krautload of marbled crayfish with unusual efficiency — which is pretty good news if you’re in the business of selling pets.
Generally I would say that this may not be the end of the world but self-replicating biological entities tend to worry me, call me a nut!
What worries me more is that scientists may already be working out how this magical sea creature is able to pull off this miraculous feat. I can see a new wave of bioweapons being created if they are able to crack the code of the self-replicating predator!
But what else is a bit of time and a good conspiracy good for eh?
Frank Lyko, a biologist at the German Cancer Research Center has studied the animals. He said that he thinks we are probably not due for a full-on crayfish invasion. “Maybe they just survive for 100,000 years,” so there's still hope for us!
The researchers working with these creatures not only figured out how this brand-new mutant was cloning itself, why, and where it started but they also discovered that the entire universe of crayfish clones originated with one single female. Beyond that they learned that the process unfolded without the use of a single male, which is almost certainly why it worked.
What does this mean for the future? Well maybe nothing but I figured it was an interesting enough topic to be worthy of a quick write-up. So what do you think of self-replicating crayfish? Do you think humans may find a way to do the same someday? Will asexual relations be the new norm?
Please leave your thoughts and feedback below.
Source:
Self-cloning mutant crayfish are taking over Europe, but really no big deal - Golf Digest
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Golf Digest