albene

albene t1_ixtjdyr wrote

Reply to comment by Jupitair in TIL of the Arisan Maru, a Japanese "hell ship" that was torpedoed while carrying Allied prisoners of war. None of the 1,781 passengers were killed by the explosion, but other Japanese ships refused to rescue them, resulting in only 9 survivors. by Jupitair

This is fascinating. I first heard of maru from Star Trek’s Kobayashi Maru and it’s nice to learn the etymology of the term. TIL-ception

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albene t1_ixsuee7 wrote

Reply to comment by FUCK_REDD1T in TIL that turkeys can sometimes reproduce asexually, forming near-clones of themselves. by WaryLouka

The offspring are not genetically identical as the process still involves meiosis, which means crossing over, random assortment and independent segregation still occur to create new combinations of alleles. The issue is that the gene pool is greatly reduced as it originates from a single individual.

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albene t1_ixqxyix wrote

Reply to TIL that turkeys can sometimes reproduce asexually, forming near-clones of themselves. by WaryLouka

Komodo dragons can do this too, and because of how gender determination works in them, a female Komodo dragon will produce male offspring asexually. “It has been hypothesised that this reproductive adaptation allows a single female to enter an isolated ecological niche (such as an island) and by parthenogenesis produce male offspring, thereby establishing a sexually reproducing population (via reproduction with her offspring that can result in both male and female young).” [Link]

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