| I did. If the premise of the research is invalid, the research itself must be invalid. There is no such a cost of sexual reproduction. We need to separate sexual reproduction from having separate sexes. Hermaphrodite reproduction isn't very costly, the only cost is the cost of the sexual act itself. Then, however, hermaphrodite reproduction is unstable, since it's obviously beneficial for the individual to only impregnate others, without prodicing eggs itself, and so passing the most expensive part of reproduction to others. Then, the next question is why the females don't revert back to asexual reprodction, but 1. that has been observed in many species. 2. Purely asexual lineages tend to die out soon and 3. it's partially counterbalanced in many animals by the male providing some other benefit, like giving food to the female or taking care for the offspring. While this is indeed somewhat paradoxical, it's in no way a mystery. Another problem with this theory is that symbiosis and mutualism are not uncommon in nature. The way this problem is typically prevented (and it seems to be even a necessary condition for mutualism to remain stable, or even arise in the first place) is that there is some mechanism for culling or cutting off the symbionts that fail to provide the expected benefits. There is no reason to believe that the same isn't the case with mitochondria. Sex seems to be a very heavy handed way of doing so, and if it was so, you would expect people to die randomly without a clear reason when their mitochondria happen to mutate the wrong way. And that recombiantion thing, that actually does happen, it's known as "outbreeding depression" and probably one of the reasons why species arise. |