This is a little off topic but it's still interesting. I was reading on the web the other day that cloned animals like Dolly suffer from genetic anomolies. Apparently it's very difficult to produce a viable clone from adult genetic material (Dolly was the successful result after hundreds of failed attempts). Supposably even with a successful birth, the cloned animal will typically have genetic problems, i.e an enlarged heart, lung problems, etc. This is supposably due to genetic errors that had accumulated in the original adult genetic information. The beauty of sexual reproduction is the new born typically starts with a clean slate in terms of genetic errors. Remember that with sexual reproduction only a split set of chromosones(sp?) are provided by each parent. These split sets are then fused into a new complete set. Apparently this splitting and fusion process enables suppression of genetic error.

Now the $64,000 question: Why haven't single celled animals (parameciums, ameboas, etc.) died out due to genetic error? Also their are large animals that can reproduce naturally through parthenogenesis(sp?). Turkeys believe it or not can breed from hens alone without the benefit of toms. This is baffling.

Gary