# These guys are late to the party. There’s already been a documentary on this subject **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 2, 2026, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-guys-are-late-to-the-party-there-s-already-been-a-documentary-on-this-subject/1028967 "2026-04-02T14:47:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-guys-are-late-to-the-party-there-s-already-been-a-documentary-on-this-subject/1028967/1 "2026-04-02T14:47:26Z")
It’s call [Multiplicity](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117108/?ref_=fn_t_1). > **[Scientists Cloned a Mouse for 58 Generations. The Results Were Catastrophic.](https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a70861443/scientists-cloned-a-mouse-for-58-generations-the-results-were-catastrophic/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us)** > > Cloning from the clone of a clone of a clone may not be the ingenious idea we thought it was. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-guys-are-late-to-the-party-there-s-already-been-a-documentary-on-this-subject/1028967/2 "2026-04-02T14:58:41Z")
Shoot, anybody with a Xerox machine knowed that! “Catastrophic” means more like, the rats became mutated killing machines, destroying everyone in the lab. Or EXPLODED! Not, died at birth. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-guys-are-late-to-the-party-there-s-already-been-a-documentary-on-this-subject/1028967/3 "2026-04-02T15:00:10Z")
That sounds like a huge success, to me, that they managed to go 58 generations before it got catastrophic. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2026, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-guys-are-late-to-the-party-there-s-already-been-a-documentary-on-this-subject/1028967/4 "2026-04-02T19:40:28Z")
It is also called “at least one episode of almost every SF series”. [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CloneDegeneration](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CloneDegeneration) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2026, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-guys-are-late-to-the-party-there-s-already-been-a-documentary-on-this-subject/1028967/5 "2026-04-03T01:15:21Z")
Aphids and a good number of other animals ( Amazon molly fish, Hydras, etc)reproduce thru parthenogenesis or cloning and it seems like aphids have been pretty successful over the last 250 million years. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2026, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-guys-are-late-to-the-party-there-s-already-been-a-documentary-on-this-subject/1028967/6 "2026-04-03T02:47:18Z")
They have probably just been lucky so far. Let’s see how they are going 250 million years from now.