How can the gremlins reproduce asexually and still have genetically diverse offspring? Unless there was something freaky in the water, Gizmo couldn’t have used any DNA but his own. I was thinking it might be random mutation, but there were too many in the litter to make that plausible. Are there any known asexual cases that would make this scenario biologically possible?
Also of note: since it’s scientifically proven that evil is transmitted genetically, Gizmo must have had a recessive evil trait lurking somewhere in his geneotype. Not quite as cuddly as you thought, eh?
Well, that’s the trouble with tribbles.
maybe they carry extra chromosones.
Hang on there, pardner.
Perhaps mogwai, like some species of turtles, can mate and store the genetic material of their partners for later times when food is more available.
So ol’ Gizmo (now revealed to be female, apparently) got jiggy with some other mogwai in the past and when hit with water used that material to combine.
Perhaps mogwai that do NOT have a recent mating in their past do reproduce parthenogenetically. But it’s clear that Gizmo didn’t.
Perhaps the evil gene isn’t recessive. Maybe Gizmo is evil, but has undergone ancient Chinese training techniques to stay on the side of good. He is constantly battling his nature, and his very soul crues out with his inner turmoil.
Furbies, being an offshoot species of the mogwai, have no such training, but they can’t move. This is why they sit there and glare at you all the time.
I seem to recall from the novelization of Gremlins (not that I’ve read it myself, you understand, but someone told me about it * …yeah, that’s the ticket* ) that mogwai have an extraterrestrial origin. If so, their unusual life cycle might yield clues about the environment of their planet of origin. We can surmise that it had either very little liquid water or an abundance of natural predators, perhaps both. On the other hand, possibly mogwai were themselves both predator and prey species (given their very distinct life stages). Perhaps their dual nature was a way to keep the population controlled during an extended diurnal period.
Consider; if the mogwai homeworld had an extremely long day, mogwai would tend to reproduce uncontrollably around any source of water, placing a severe strain on local food resources. Perhaps this expansion phase continued for a half-planetary day, and then any mogwai which continued to consume after that point (“feeding after midnight”) entered the more violent, predatory “gremlin” phase. They would then cull the surplus mogwai population until daybreak, at which point they would be destroyed and a new cycle would start from the surviving mogwai (which would be smarter and more adaptable in general, since they were able to evade culling). In this fashion, evolutionary fitness could be driven by internal competition, while excessive resource depletion would be discouraged (since any mogwai that continued to feed after midnight would be removed from the population through metamorphosis). Gremlins, then, would not be “evil” so much as they are fulfilling a different biological imperative, much as wolves and sharks (although I’ve seen the movies, and the bastards did seem pretty evil to me).
This scenario assumes that the sensitivity of gremlins to UV radiation is significantly greater than that of mogwai, which I think is supported to some extent by the movies; Gizmo merely flinches when exposed to sunlight, whereas the gremlins tend to blister and explode. Perhaps the protective fur is the critical factor. Excessive sensitivity to UV may also neatly address the lack of genetic variability, since new mutations would be constantly introduced. Each generation cycle would then select for the most fit individuals, much as a cell culture grown on antibiotic media.
The appearance of somatically distinct offspring might possibly be accounted for by differential embryonic development. It is known that environmental factors can affect growth, and these effects are most apparent in organisms such as amphibians which have a relatively unprotected larval stage. Mogwai, of course, simply spit their zygotes out onto any available surface; growth is exceedingly fast, and excess mass and water are presumably drawn from the air and surroundings (which could have any amount of contaminants or viruses that could affect growth). This may substitute for sexual variation in mogwai.
Another possibility is that mogwai (or gremlins) do, in fact, also produce a certain number of genetically male individuals, like aphids (which also have an explosive population cycle given the right conditions). Perhaps there is simply no external dimorphism between males and parthenogenetic females.
The above is simply a thought exercise concocted off the cuff; no doubt other, more plausible scenarios can be thought of. Bear in mind also that I hate the Gremlins movies with a passion, which may introduce an element of bias into my analysis.
It’s possible that the planet of the mogwai rotates so slowly that a day lasts as long as a full year on their planet. Thus, during the “spring and summer” they would be herbivorous. Then during the “fall and winter” which would correspond to being “after midnight” food would become more scarce and they metamorphose into the more agressive predatory form.
The reaction to water may be becase water is SO scarce on thier planet that they cannot afford to spare any of it in creating an offspring untill they have stored up enough of it to stay alive afterwards without a drink indefinately. (I’m thinking of a planet something like Dune in that regard)
Good lord. I opened this thread expecting to see that somebody was selling reproduction kits for a Gremlin.
Hmm. I’d never considered that they might be aliens of some kind. I was trying to classify the species and coming up empty.
-They have hair like mammals.
-They have a sensitivity to light like reptiles.
-They give birth to live young like mammals.
-They become nasty after eating too close to their bedtime, like humans.
It’s their odd way of reproducing with water that I would say makes them alien. Imagine a Gremlin in the wild: one trip down to the watering hole and the entire ecosystem is thrown out of balance.
I’m still not so sure where I stand on the whole “Gizmo is Evil” thing. He is clearly distraught over the rampant chaos of his children. However, it is not clear whether his reaction is due to a sense of responsibility or if he is battling similar desires. But I feel I must point out that a single bullet through Gizmo’s head would stop this Gremlin problem once and for all. Let’s face it, with all the crappy sequals coming out, it’s only a matter of time before Gremlins 3. (Of course, maybe that would answer some of these burning questions).
There was another Gremlins thread recently. According to someone who read the novelization, it turns out that mogwai are evil. Gizmo is an extremely rare example of a good mogwai.