2007-04-19

prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
2007-04-19 07:22 am

parthenogenesis

parthenogenesis - n., reproduction in which an egg develops into a new individual without being fertilized.


Which doesn't necessarily mean the offspring are clone daughters of the mother -- in bees and ants, for example, haploid males come from unfertilized eggs of the diploid queen. Coined from Greek parthenos, virgin + genesis, origin, creation, generation.

---L.