Abstinent Geckos Run Faster
June 27th, 2005
Well, their offspring do – in a confusing twist of evolutionary values, researchers at Lewis & Clark College have compared two groups of geckos from the same species – some of whom were the result of sexual reproduction and others who were the result of cloning (which this species of lizard can apparently perform in the absence of mates) and discovered that the cloned lizards outperfomed their brethren by 50%:
The researchers used a state-of-the-art lizard treadmill to test the gecko’s speed, body temperature, and calorie burning, and compared them to other lizards.
And wow, a lizard treadmill? Who knew?
Link via LiveScience
Popularity: 3% [?]
June 28th, 2005 at 10:25 am
I wonder
a) what they consider “out-performance”
b) why that is!? cloned = possibly better?? crazy!
what kind of implications might this have on our societal and scientific approach to the idea of cloning? (specifically thinking of stem cell research)
July 3rd, 2005 at 1:51 pm
i’ve seen stuff on TV about these geckos. i believe it’s the females that can clone themselves through self-oogenesis (sp?). here’s the catch: the clones mights be faster than the non-clones, but when it comes down to it, evolution will never favor the clones; if anything changes, they’ll either all adapt or all die.
bottom line: fast as they may be, these cloned geckos will never save you 15% or more on your car insurance.
call geico.