Fathers, Who Needs ‘Em?

Yep, you guessed it, today I am blogging about father-less reproduction, immaculate conception, parthenogenesis (my term of choice today), or whatever you call it, and no, I didn’t read about this in New Scientist magazine but I am sure the topic has been covered there. This type of reproduction (without fertilization by a male) occurs in some insects and flowers, bees, a subject of several of my blog writings, come to mind. In 2007, a hammerhead shark that gave birth in a Nebraska aquarium reproduced without mating, and through genetic analysis it was determined that there was no male contribution. Though fairly rare in invertebrates, parthenogenesis does occur in snakes and lizards too and is probably more common than we think. Parthenogenesis is a last resort tactic when an animal can’t find a mate. Many of the articles I read, in a tongue in cheek manner that indicates the authors of the articles were probably males, claimed parthenogenesis a result of an inability of the females involved to find a “date,” but in truth loss of genetic diversity is one of the biggest down sides to parthenogenesis, among other things. Draw your own conclusions here.

So what’s the answer to that question about who needs Dads?

Just everybody else not mentioned above, human children especially.

To all you Dads and your families out there….Happy Father’s Day!