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'Cloverfield' crayfish created a new species of self-replicating female mutants
They’re all female. They don’t need males to fertilise their eggs. And they’re proving remarkably resilient and adaptive.
Now they’re threatening the destruction of native freshwater species and the devastation of entire ecosystems.
After 20 years of the crustacean’s blitzkrieg through Europe and Africa, science now knows where the monster came from. An analysis of the mutant’s genome supports fears the marbled crayfish is the result of an unexpected accident in a German aquarium in 1995.
They’re all female. They don’t need males to fertilise their eggs. And they’re proving remarkably resilient and adaptive.
Now they’re threatening the destruction of native freshwater species and the devastation of entire ecosystems.
After 20 years of the crustacean’s blitzkrieg through Europe and Africa, science now knows where the monster came from. An analysis of the mutant’s genome supports fears the marbled crayfish is the result of an unexpected accident in a German aquarium in 1995.