No Need for Males

I probably read the novels At the Earth’s Core and Pellucidar about 20 times when I was between the ages of 10 and 15.  They were written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan, who also wrote a crossover novel entitled Tarzan at the Earth’s Core. The world Burroughs created fascinated me.  An old scientist, accompanied by a classic American hero, builds a drilling machine that takes them to the center of the earth where they find a land of dinosaurs, pre-historic mammals, friendly natives, and barbaric ape-like cavemen known as the Sagoths.  The novels are full of chivalrous nonsense.  After the hero, David Innes, saves a beautiful native woman from being ravaged by a Sagoth he makes a faux pas–according to the custom among the natives of this world, a saved woman was to be embraced and kissed and made a mate or freed.  Innes didn’t know he was supposed to place his hand over her head to symbolize her freedom, otherwise she was considered his slave.  It takes him a while to realize his mistake and right his wrong.  Later, he has to save her again from a race of intelligent dinosaurs that rule this world.  This race of all female dinosaurs, known as the Mahars, raise humans like livestock.  Whenever they want something to eat, they hypnotize, then eat their human chattel.

Illustration of human being hypnotized by intelligent parthenogenetic dinosaur in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ At the Earth’s Core.  In this fantasy novel the intelligent all female dinosaurs enslaved and fed upon humans until they were routed by the hero from the earth’s surface.

In Burroughs’s novel the Mahars used science and technology to eliminate the need for males, but in the real world evolution has eliminated males in 80 species of reptiles, amphibians, and fish.  Organisms that produce viable eggs without mating are known as parthenogenetic.  Species that are all female have a couple of advantages over species that need to mate.  They can reproduce when their population is low, and energy is not wasted on individuals that produce no eggs.  Most species are not parthenogenetic because in most cases the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.  Parthenogenetic species can suffer low genetic variability leading to an increase in harmful mutations.

The New Mexican whiptail lizard (Cnemidophorus neomexicanus) is an example of an all female parthenogenetic species.  The New Mexican whiptail lizard is an hybridized cross between the little striped whiptail lizard (C. ornatus) and the western whiptail lizard (C. tigris).  The New Mexican whiptail lizard produces viable eggs that all hatch to become female clones.  New lineages are created and genetic variability is established every time a western whiptail mates with a little striped whiptail.  New Mexican whiptails engage in lesbian sex.  This, of course, doesn’t fertilize the eggs, but lesbian whiptails do produce more viable eggs, probably because the sex stimulates hormone production.

New Mexican whiptail lizards are all female clones.

Some species of vertebrates are facultive parthenogenetic species.  They normally mate with individuals of the opposite sex, but when populations are low can produce viable eggs without mating.  Komodo dragons, boa constrictors, and some species of sharks are able to switch from sexual breeding to asexual reproduction.  The offspring can then mate normally when they come into contact with males.  Other species are considered accidental parthenogenetic species.  They produce viable eggs without mating on very rare occasions.  Parthenogenetic cases have been reported for chickens, turkeys, and pigeons.

Many species of plants and invertebrates are parthenogenetic.  Unlike vertebrate parthenogenetic species which produce all females, invertebrates and plants can produce offspring that are all female, all male, or female and male.

 

Tags: Edgar Rice Burroughs, New Mexican whiptail lizard, parthenogenetic species