> mitochondria seem to be closely related to sex: to my knowledge, organisms with mitochondria always use sexual reproduction, as if mitochondria made sex necessary.
As you yourself point out later, Bdelloid Rotifers and some plants are exceptions to this. Of course, they are descended from sexually reproducing ancestors, but all eukaryotes are descended from the same sexually reproducing ancestor anyway, so this doesn't say very much.
Many, many plants and animals (not humans) are capable of asexual reproduction, too; of course, most of them also use sexual reproduction as well.
Love this - would you be interested in crossposting on the Seeds of Science "Best of Science Blogging" feed (not sure how else to reach you :)? Requires nothing on your end other than a short author bio blurb. If so, please reach out to us at info@theseedsofscience.org.
Nothing erudite to contribute here, only a word of thanks for one of the most entertaining perusals I've had in quite some time.
Truly. The material was interesting and thought provoking, but it took a while to read, owing to he constant punctuation with laughter.
There's not enough amusement in the world. Your addition to the inventory is most welcome.
Excellent. 10/10.
Here thanks to Astral Codex Ten/LessWrong. Look forward to more of your writing.
> the two types diverged into big gametes and large gametes
Shouldn't one of those be "small gametes"?
Ha, thanks for spotting this
Entered the comments to share the same. Great read incidentally!
Amazing article, you've got an instant subscriber. Please don't stop doing whatever you do.
I've long preferred my smut to have a sense of humor. This is therefore superb.
Thanks very much for this.
> mitochondria seem to be closely related to sex: to my knowledge, organisms with mitochondria always use sexual reproduction, as if mitochondria made sex necessary.
As you yourself point out later, Bdelloid Rotifers and some plants are exceptions to this. Of course, they are descended from sexually reproducing ancestors, but all eukaryotes are descended from the same sexually reproducing ancestor anyway, so this doesn't say very much.
Many, many plants and animals (not humans) are capable of asexual reproduction, too; of course, most of them also use sexual reproduction as well.
Love this - would you be interested in crossposting on the Seeds of Science "Best of Science Blogging" feed (not sure how else to reach you :)? Requires nothing on your end other than a short author bio blurb. If so, please reach out to us at info@theseedsofscience.org.
www.theseedsofscience.org
https://www.theseedsofscience.pub/s/the-best-of-science-blogging
An excellent summary -- thanks for writing it!