时差N小时 雄性的未来(上)

What's the matter, Don? You look worried.

发生什么事了，唐？你看起来很担忧。

Well, Yael, you know how people are always predicting that one day women will be able to have babies without men?

嗯，雅艾尔，人们通常预测，如果有一天没有男人，女人也可以自己生孩子，

It turns out that some species of the Whiptail lizard¹ have figured out how to do this and completely eliminated the male sex.

你知道是怎么回事吗？事实证明鞭尾蜥蜴已经做到这一点，并将雄性蜥蜴完全消灭掉了。

You mean that the species is all female?

你是说所有的鞭尾蜥蜴都是雌性?

Exactly. The females have the ability to lay eggs that hatch and grow into healthy lizards² without needing to be fertilized³ by a male.

正是这样。雌性鞭尾蜥蜴能不通过受精就产卵并孵化出健康的小蜥蜴。

The offspring are exact and complete genetic⁴ duplicates of the mothers.

而其后代的基因与母亲的基因完全一致。

So the females are cloning themselves.

那么说雌性蜥蜴是在克隆自己。

That's right. And if that weren't enough, the female lizards take turns role-playing.

说得对。如果那样还不够的话，雌性蜥蜴会轮流进行角色扮演。

They perform a mating ritual in which one lizard acts like the male, and the second lizard acts like the female.

她们进行一个交配仪式，其中一个扮演雄性，另一个扮演雌性。

1 lizard   

n.蜥蜴，壁虎

参考例句：

• A chameleon is a kind of lizard.变色龙是一种蜥蜴。
• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect.蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。

2 lizards   

n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nothing lives in Pompeii except crickets and beetles and lizards. 在庞培城里除了蟋蟀、甲壳虫和蜥蜴外，没有别的生物。 来自辞典例句
• Can lizards reproduce their tails? 蜥蜴的尾巴断了以后能再生吗？ 来自辞典例句

3 Fertilized   

v.施肥( fertilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The study of psychology has recently been widely cross-fertilized by new discoveries in genetics. 心理学研究最近从遗传学的新发现中受益匪浅。
• Flowers are often fertilized by bees as they gather nectar. 花常在蜜蜂采蜜时受粉。

4 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。