tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16505569.post8859704232023747764..comments2024-01-05T05:02:20.353+00:00Comments on CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the Track: DESIGN AN ANIMALUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16505569.post-11241609445516749742009-05-11T00:17:00.000+01:002009-05-11T00:17:00.000+01:00Alright, I'll bite on this one.
How's about a hap...Alright, I'll bite on this one.<br /><br />How's about a haplodiploid mouse? Females would have the normal diploid chromosome arrangement like all mammals do now, i.e. apart from sex chromosomes a pair of each chromosome. Males would be haploid, and have only one of each chromosome.<br /><br />The animals would be specialist exploiters of patchy but extremely abundant resources, such as large crops of fruit, or large dead animals. The normal state of affairs for this mouse would be that a wandering female would happen upon the sudden superabundance of food, and after feeding emit a sex pheromone to call a male to her.<br /><br />Should this fail, she would then ovulate and allow this haploid egg cell to develop into a male, which would serve as a mate for her in the absence of any unrelated male turning up. Once mated the female then produces as many more females as possible, turning from a mobile animal into an immobile breeding machine fed by the immature female offspring; older females would either stay and help, or breed themselves if the food source were big enough.<br /><br />Finally, when the food resource was fully used up, the remaining wander-morph females would leave, and the breeder-morph female die. <br /><br />This isn't really speculation on my part, but merely a reworking of classic hymenopteran biology onto mammals. It _could_ happen...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com