So true for the humans, the animals can’t be warned to stay out of the sun and wear sun block. The animals and plants that reproduced asexualy in the article I read, did so in areas of extreme climate. Does the high dose of UV trigger this behavor? Once they stop reproducing by copulation, the risk of desease and paratisation seems to increase in a few generations.
There is a transmissable veneral tumor in dogs. Tumor cells have fewer chromosomes than the hosts normal cells.
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1650&S=1&SourceID=42
OK, I’ve found an article that seems to be similar to what you’re talking about: Super Geckoes Excel Without Sex. The scientist is Michael Kearney.
The asexual reproduction helps them - in an extreme climate like the Australian desert, if the plants and animals reproduce asexually then they can get on with surviving instead of wasting time and energy on finding and selecting partners. Also, “Parthenogenetic lizards have an advantage over sexuals in being capable of greater aerobic activity at low nocturnal temperatures” (taken from this conference listing, featuring a talk from Kearney). I don’t think, and apparently neither do the people researching it, that UV radiation has anything to do with this. The Australian desert is an extremely harsh environment, and our continent separated from other landmasses very early on in our history, so our plants and animals just had to do things their own way if they wanted to survive.
We tend to have years of droughts followed by sudden floods - plants and animals need to be ready to adapt to whatever circumstances the climate throws at them, which can mean switching from sexual to asexual reproduction if that’s what will help. Plenty of life-forms in extreme environments do this, it’s not rare in itself.
Thank all of you that have spent time in answering.