You’d think that the trailer for Rise of The Planet of The Apes would be enough to remind people that screwing around with nature can lead to disasters even James Franco can’t endure. Apparently not, in light of news that researchers have bred a new species of all-female lizard under lab conditions.
The team, led by biologist Peter Baumann of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, has reportedly created a new species of hybrid female lizards that’s lasted four generations, reproducing by essentially cloning themselves, developing embryos without fertilization.
“It’s recreating the events that lead to new species,” says Baumann. “It relates to the question of how these unisexual species arise in the first place.”
His creations mirror species that have arisen naturally, but never been directly observed. But with unisexuality potentially on the rise in species of fish, amphibian and reptile over the last decade, it’s definitely something that needs further investigation – although I’m unconvinced by Baumann’s central question: “Is it really the case that, once a species is unisexual, it’s set in stone, and it will be that way until it dies out? Or is it there a chance that material in unisexual lineages could find its way back?”
When humans start cloning those lineages back into existence, I’m pretty sure scientific waters will be muddied just a bit.
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