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from the government-grants-needed-for-further-study dept.
Evolution turned this fish into a 'penis with a heart.' Here's how.
When it comes to dating in the abyssal depths of the ocean, appearance doesn't matter much. That's fortunate for anglerfish, which resemble nightmarish fanged potatoes with a little reading lamp on top. And those are just the females.
If you've never seen a male anglerfish before, you're not missing much. Measuring just a few centimeters long on average, male anglers are a mere fraction of their partners' size, and contribute a fraction of the work to their relationships. For many anglerfish species, the male's sole responsibility is to permanently latch onto an obliging mate, fuse his circulatory system with hers, then slowly allow his eyes, fins and most of his internal organs to degenerate until he becomes what biologist Stephen Jay Gould called "a penis with a heart." The male gets constant nourishment; the female gets sperm on demand. The anglerfish circle of life spins on.
It's beautiful, we know. But this unique mating ritual — which biologists call "sexual parasitism" — has long stumped researchers. How could the female angler's immune system even allow such a permanent, parasitic union to occur?
It's a good thing humans are more evolved and don't have this style of courtship and lifetime commitment.
Journal Reference:
Jeremy B. Swann, Stephen J. Holland, Malte Petersen, et al. The immunogenetics of sexual parasitism [$], Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz9445)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by deimios on Tuesday August 04 2020, @10:47AM (2 children)
Well technically the main priority of life is procreation.
Secondary priorities include maximizing the number of offspring produced per time unit either by more offspring per mate or more mates.
Tertiary priorities include staying alive long enough to procreate and find mates to procreate with.
Tangential priorities include stuff like eating to get energy, sleeping to preserve energy, evolving mechanisms to select the best mates, ensuring protection of the offspring and/or mate.
Natural selection will take care of the rest.
P.S. Yes I know there is the whole group/society and complex behavior but in the grand scheme of things those all serve the above priorities.
Of course there are exceptions, but those drop out of the genepool in a few generations.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday August 04 2020, @01:20PM
Procreation is only one essential in a long list of needs for life to continue. True, many secondary activities revolve around procreation. Yet it seems too simplistic a reduction of all the challenges of life to elevate procreation above all the rest of the needs. Obviously need food, water, air, and room. Need shelter, and safety. Which of those occupies the most time? Perhaps it used to be food?
Also, unrestrained procreation quickly leads to big problems. Very soon, there wold be far too many individuals for the environment to support, and the resulting death and destruction could weaken the population and future prospects so greatly that the few who survive the competition and famine to emerge into an aftermath in which there are no longer too many individuals, nevertheless go extinct soon after out of inability to make enough in the wasteland that the fighting left behind. It doesn't take nuclear weapons to destroy everything, billions of desperately hungry individuals can do that too. I suspect life has deep instincts that limit procreation to sustainable levels.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday August 04 2020, @06:36PM
That may be true if one's goals are:
1. more kids to do more chores
2. more kids that can take care of the younger kids that will come later
3. more kids to increase the size of monthly welfare check
But on the other hand there is the invention of birth control. Some people do seem to want to limit procreation. Mostly so that they can keep in good practice for procreation -- should they ever need to.
I am reminded of prophylactic recycling centers.
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