this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2026
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Biodiversity

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Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.

Over generations, all of the species that are currently alive today have evolved unique traits that make them distinct from other species. These differences are what scientists use to tell one species from another. Organisms that have evolved to be so different from one another that they can no longer reproduce with each other are considered different species. All organisms that can reproduce with each other fall into one species. Read more...

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93
Parasitic ant species where every individual is a queen discovered in Japan (www.independent.co.uk)
submitted 1 day ago by Salamence@mander.xyz to c/biodiversity@mander.xyz
15 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7777980

A new study has now provided the first proof of an ant species that lacks both workers and males and consists exclusively of queens.

💅💅💅💅

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[–] reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Cloning!

Note: Typically ‘workers’ are non sexually reproducing females for ants

They then analysed the queen ants under a microscope and found that their mating structures were not used, essentially indicating that the offspring were all clones.

After observing multiple colonies and multiple populations of the species, researchers confirmed that the species completely lacked workers and males.

“Our data therefore suggest that the life history of T. kinomurai is characterised by the unique combination of workerless parasitism and parthenogenesis, i.e., the ability to produce female offspring from unfertilised eggs,” scientists wrote in the study published in the journal Current Biology.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah I read it, I'm saying that if an animal is only reproducing via cloning forever, it's an evolutionary dead end, because they will have completely lost the ability to adapt to environmental changes

[–] gid@piefed.blahaj.zone 10 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

Not necessarily: mutations will still happen. But there will not be any genetic crossing over that will contribute to greater variance.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 1 points 5 hours ago

How many animals can you name that reproduce only asexually? The rate of evolution in an asexually reproducing species will always be significantly slower than a species that reproduces sexually, and over time it will be out-competed.