Two male yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) Photo: Hugo Darras
Two male yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) Photo: Hugo Darras International research team identify novel reproduction system in animals The Yellow Crazy Ant Anoplolepis gracilipes , is named after its erratic movements when disturbed. It is one of the worst invasive animals in the world, threatening populations of the Red Land Crab on Christmas Island, or forming supercolonies tens of kilometres across in northern Australia. But it turns out there is another reason why these insects stand out from the rest of the animal kingdom. As discovered by an international research team from Switzerland, Thailand and Germany, including the University of Göttingen, bodies of male Yellow Crazy Ants are composed of a mosaic of cells from two different, genetic lineages. The research was published in Science. A male yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) Photo: Hugo Darras - This finding is extremely unusual, and thus far not identified in any other living creature. In most animals including humans, each cell contains the genetic information from both the male and the female lineage at the same time, forming diploid cells with a double set of chromosomes.
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