Researchers have discovered how an ancient species of beetle has survived without having sex.
The Oppiella nova is a species of all female “ancient asexual” beetle mites, according to a press release from the University of Cologne. For years, scientists have struggled to figure out how exactly the creatures reproduce and survive despite not having sex. At one point, they hypothesized that the beetle mites occasionally produce a reproductive male by accident (a la “Jurassic Park”).
Now, they have cracked the elusive puzzle: the beetles can create clones of itself.
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