--- title: "Scientists Discover Creature That Never Has Sex" description: "Researchers have discovered how an ancient species of all female beetle has survived without having sex. " date: "2021-09-26" modified: "2021-09-26" authors: - name: "Tony Ho Tran" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/ttran.md" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-creature-never-has-sex" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "beetle" - "reproduction" - "sex" - "the digest" --- # Scientists Discover Creature That Never Has Sex ![Researchers have discovered how an ancient species of all female beetle has survived without having sex. ]() *\Image: M. Maraun and K.Wehne via the University of Cologne\* ## Clone Wars Researchers have discovered how an ancient species of beetle has survived without having sex. The *Oppiella nova* is a species of all female "ancient asexual" beetle mites, according to a [press release]() from the University of Cologne. For years, scientists have struggled to figure out how exactly the creatures reproduce and survive despite not having sex. At one point, they hypothesized that the beetle mites occasionally produce a reproductive male by accident (a la "Jurassic Park"). Now, they have cracked the elusive puzzle: the beetles can create clones of itself. ## The Meselson Effect That's right. Unlike humans who typically just turn to porn and self-pleasure, the ancient beetle just creates clones of itself instead. It turns out that *O. nova* can actually create genetically varied versions of itself through a process called the "Meselson effect." This allows the beetle to create different copies of its genetic information with separate mutations. This is actually the first instance in which scientists have been able to observe and study the Meselson effect. The researchers have [published a paper]() of their findings in *PNAS.* "That may sound simple. But in practice, the Meselson effect has never been conclusively demonstrated in animals — until now," said co-author of the study Tanja Schwander in the press release. While incredibly rare, creatures that can survive without sexual reproduction do crop up in nature. Just last year, researchers discovered a gigantic UFO-like sea creature made up of [millions of clones](). **READ MORE:** [Some animal species can survive successfully without sexual reproduction]() \[University of Cologne\] **More on clone insects:** [*A Single Bee Has Created an Immortal Army with Millions of Clones*]() ## Author Tony Tran is a former reporter for Futurism, and now an editor at the Daily Beast. His work has been seen in Playboy, HuffPost, Narratively, and wherever else fine writing is published. He lives in Chicago where he frequently plans tabletop gaming sessions for his friends. ## More - [Scientists Just Sequenced An 18 Million Year Old Species That Cloned Itself]() - [Sex Robot Programmed to Rant About End of Humanity]() - [Scientists Have Successfully Bred Mice Using Skin Cells]() - [The Era of Sex for Reproduction Is Coming to an End, Says Author]() - [A Single Bee Has Created an Immortal Army with Millions of Clones]() - [Scientists Discover New Snail, Name It After Greta Thunberg]() - [Scientists Discover Bizarre New Deep Sea Creatures]() - [Scientists Discover Dinosaur Fossil That Seems Suspiciously Like a Dragon]()