Males Need Not Apply

Back in my naturalist days, one of my most-favorite pastimes was to dip a pail of water from the mucky, algae-filled edges of a pond and spend a couple of hours exploring its contents under a microscope. I could get lost in that delicate spirogyra forest, searching for its single- and few-celled inhabitants. Some of my favorites were the rotifers, transparent creatures with an incredible propulsion system. (Their name comes from the Latin word that means "wheel-bearer" because each rotifer has a ring of cilia - little hair-like  projections - that move rapidly, causing the organism to spin.)

If you'd like to see some rotifers, here is a rotifer gallery with the best photographs of these creatures I've ever seen, by the Dutch photomicrographer Wim van Egmond.

Today, Chris Clarke has added to my knowledge with one of his signature posts about evolutionary biology. He begins with the rotifers and takes us on a journey through various forms of sexual and non-sexual reproduction, discussing the evolutionary preferences for each, and ending up where the title begins: "What Really Bothers the Creationists." Highly recommended.

Comments

[mare]

This is so funny. I was reading the first scentences of this post and thought about my friend Wim. Then I saw his name an shivers went down my spine. It's a small word, excuse me for the pun. Here's a picture of him when he visited me in Montréal and we ate one of those huge sandwiches at Santropol. The text is in Dutch, sorry.

[beth]

Mare - how strange and wonderful, this web of ours! Please tell Wim hello - I sent him a note this morning anyway to tell him how much I enjoyed his photographs - and thanks for the picture link; I managed to figure out the gist of what the caption said!

[Mouse]

oh dear. I read that first sentence as 'in my naturist days' and was almost too embarassed to read further lest there be a startling revelation

that's what comes of a repressed British upbringing!

me, I was (and still am) into fungi

[marja-leena]

Fantastic work by Wim, and essay by Chris! Thanks, Beth. (My first longer comment yesterday seems to have disappeared into the ether...)