Comments on: Snails get sexy when parasites are around

By: Ian Tindale

Ian Tindale — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:08:17 +0000

Those flukes are a bit like Robin Hood – robbing from the snails, to give to the ducks. Certainly in terms of length, that is.

By: Sanguinity

Sanguinity — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:05:31 +0000

Sorry to leave the comment here, but the post directly following — the one about noise and birds — appears to be broken in some way. I canNOT get to the rest of the article. Not via the “read more” link, nor the title link.

By: NickS

NickS — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:06:55 +0000

Heh, Potamopyrgus antipodarum is also highly invasive in a number of US West Coast watersheds. And reproduce entirely asexually for the most part, though if I recall the readings I did for a undergrad evol.bio presentation, it is reproducing semi-sexually in one population in France.
Anyhow, if flukes are tightly bound to sexual populations, then this does make biocontrol via introducing flukes a bit more on the fun side. Depending on the source populations for the invasive groups. Though if I recall correctly, each invasive population was mostly 1 clonal line…

By: Dior

Dior — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:20:56 +0000

As a High School Science Teacher in a small conservative town, I am famous for showing what my students call the “Sex Video”. It is the “Eyes of Nye on Genetic Diversity”, and explains that we have sex to stay ahead of the parasites. Nye also uses his bad humor and the Red queen to explain this.
Thanks for a concrete example that I can use in the classroom.

By: Taneli Huuskonen

Taneli Huuskonen — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:34:53 +0000

I hope you don’t mind me sharing a Finnish palindrome, just in case there are other Finnish readers:
“Toi loiskeston ne hennot seksioliot.”
Roughly translated, it says, “It’s them delicate sex creatures that brought parasite tolerance.” (The grammar is nonstandard in the original.)

By: Lilian Nattel

Lilian Nattel — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:29:06 +0000

Who would have thought that sex was basically about worms?