Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Years (2012)

Re:Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Year... by uiri on Tuesday March 10, 2015 @03:36PM (#9180071)

The article touches on this a little bit, I think.

Eve's eggs were harvested, incubated (though it turns out only the first 30 were fertile) and became the foundation of the zoo's new population of walking sticks.

I am not a real biologist, but I suspect it is some combination of the factors you suggest and that their genome may be simple enough that most defects make the eggs nonviable.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Year... by ufo on Tuesday March 10, 2015 @04:28PM (#9180402)

Insects also have complex genomes. The egg fertility most likely has to do with other issues (differences between the natural habitat and captivity, maybe there is a natural tendency for not all eggs to be fertile, etc)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Year... by jschwartzi on Tuesday March 10, 2015 @10:23PM (#9182165)

I wonder if the infertile eggs are a sort of decoy? Those eggs look like they might be large enough to make an attractive meal for a bird.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Year... by ufo on Tuesday March 10, 2015 @10:59PM (#9182305)

Nature is complicated. Not everything needs to have an adaptionist explanation.

[ Parent | on HN ]