Science may have just learned the real reason we have sex — and, no, it’s not just because it feels good.
Evolutionarily speaking, sexual reproduction is a waste of time and energy compared to some animals and plants that can make carbon copies of themselves asexually — like starfish, Komodo dragons, bananas and strawberries.
Sex is the reason for a peacock’s elaborate tail, a stag’s giant antlers, or even a human man’s attempt at dancing — but “if a female of any of these species produced offspring on her own, without sex, her offspring should come to dominate” Dr. Stuart Auld told stir.ac.uk. “While the other females watch the redundant males fighting and dancing.”
But Auld and his research team at the University of Stirling in Scotland found that sexual reproduction is healthier for offspring — an observation made studying the water flea, which can reproduce both ways.
“By comparing clonal and sexual daughters from the same mothers [of water fleas], we found sexually produced offspring get less sick,” Auld said.
Sexual reproduction creates mixed genetics, and that provides the offspring with new ways to fight against future or potential pathogens, the research found.
“Previous studies had been able to compare distinct sexual and asexual populations and we have learnt a lot from this approach,” Auld told the International Business Times.
“However, populations can be different for other reasons that their mode of reproduction, so for our study, it was interesting to look at a species that could reproduce sexually and asexually.”