Instructions – One copy per table:The organisms on the cards all have specific reproductive traits. For each species we want to answer the following.
What are the adaptive advantages of the reproductive mode exhibited by each species?
Address the following aspects in your answer:•The energy invested in reproduction and parental care•The DNA passed to the next generation•Selfish genetic elements•Mitochondrial ‘warfare’
When you have done this we can go through each one as a group, and your PASS facilitators will list the major points of each aspect on the board.
The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
A female turkey can produce fertile eggs in the absence of a male
The offspring is often sickly, and nearly always male
Bdelloid rotifers
Rotifers are a very cosmopolitan and successful group
Males are completely unknown. Females reproduce by parthenogensis.
In some species, the young develop to maturity within the body cavity and are born live. In others, eggs are produced and
deposited in the vegetation of the pond's edge
Whiptail lizards
There are 42 species the Whiptail lizard genus; 15 species are clonal
Females still have a pairing ritual where females alternate role of “male”
Egg production is dependent on pairing ritual
Daphnia
Daphnia reproduce by budding in the spring to rapidly populate ponds, then switch to sexual
reproduction (meiosis) as the intensity of competition and predation increases .
Slime moulds
Slime mould undergoes binary fission as single-celled amoebae under favourable conditions.
When conditions get tough, the cells aggregate and switch to sexual reproduction leading to the
formation of haploid spores
Snails
All land snails are hermaphrodites. They possess both male and female reproductive organs.
When two snails meet during the breeding season, mating is initiated by one snail piercing the skin of the
other with a calcified 'love dart'. This stimulates the exchange of small packets of sperm.
After mating is complete the snails will produce eggs internally, which are fertilised by the sperm that has
been exchanged. Some snails may live for 30 years or more, but most live
less than 8 years.
Oyster Leeches (Imogine lateotentare)
Oyster leeches are predators and are not true leeches, but rather platyhelminthes.
They are found in Sydney's Botany BayIndividuals are hermaphrodites with both male and
female partsSexual display resembles penis fencing!!
To reproduce they try to stab each other with one or both of their genitals and the first to penetrate inserts
sperm and then goes on to spar with another flatworm.
The "loser" lays and broods the eggs
Paramecium
Under stressful conditions, Paramecium goes from asexual reproduction to sexual
reproductionThis occurs via conjugation: two paramecia line
up side by side and then fuse together
Only exchange nuclear DNA
