Scientists have found that in a couple of million years there may not be men on Earth, but women will remain and will reproduce by self-cloning.
A similar conclusion was reached by Paul Walter and Jenny Graves, biologists at the Australian National University, writes the American weekly news magazine Newsweek. They argue that the male Y chromosome is gradually decreasing in size and, quite likely, may disappear altogether. An obvious result for them was obtained after a multi-stage study of X and Y chromosomes. As you know, it is their connection that determines the sex of the fetus: women have a pair of X chromosomes, and men have one X and one Y.
During the study, scientists found that the female chromosomes did not change and remained the same as 130 million years ago. But male ones mutate, decrease in size and can, thus, disappear altogether.
However, Japanese scientists from the University of Hokkaido are reassuring: men are not going anywhere. They cite the example of rats that have developed a way to produce males using a different chromosome.
Even if males disappear, says Ruth Gorelik, a sex evolution researcher at Carleton University in Canada, it doesn’t really matter: “Females in some species can self-fertilize. several species of sharks, birds and invertebrates.”
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