Evolution Blog

 Sexual Reproduction and its Advantages When it comes to reproduction, we can see two types persisting. There is asexual reproduction which requires only one individual (usually) and through parthenogenesis or the development of an unfertilized egg, results in an essential clone of the parent. The other we are discussing is sexual reproduction. This process requires at least two parents, resulting in the recombination of genes that are then passed to their offspring.  Asexual reproduction has a lot of advantages, namely, you don't need a partner! As soon as the individual is ready to reproduce they can do so without the ovum needing to be fertilized. Many methods of parthenogenesis can allow for the production of both males and females. A downside to asexual reproduction is that sometimes an individual must incorporate new genes into their offspring thus requiring sexual reproduction, this is cyclic parthenogenesis. Another downside is that it becomes difficult to lose or gain...

What is a species and how do we define  what determines a species? Several concepts help scientists categorize species, and all are correct depending on the project's scope. So many concepts exist because of the vast diversity of life on Earth! Scientists have been working for hundreds of years to compile and categorize said diversity. Just as organisms evolve by external factors, science has evolved to become more complex and precise as new discoveries are made such as genetic sequencing. A general definition can be a group of organisms that can successfully interbreed with each other and produce viable offspring. Let's look deeper at some concepts to see how they can be beneficial and what limits they have.  Firstly the Biological Species Concept (BSC) describes species as groups of actually or potentially interbreeding populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups. This concept can be useful when you are making preliminary observations of a population...