Page 409 - Enders_Game_Full_Book

"No. Pure female. No male sexual organs at all. Does that qualify as an important question? Somehow the cabras are having some kind of genetic exchange, without sex."
"The theological implications alone are astounding."
"Don't make fun."
"Of which? Science or theology?"
"Either one. Do you want to hear more of my questions or not?" "I do," said the Speaker.
"Then try this. The grass you're lying on-- we call it grama. All the watersnakes are hatched here. Little worms so small you can hardly see them. They eat the grass down to the nub and eat each other, too, shedding skin each time they grow larger. Then all of a sudden, when the grass is completely slimy with their dead skin, all the snakes slither off into the river and they never come back out. "
He wasn't a xenobiologist. He didn't get the implication right away.
"The watersnakes hatch here," she explained, "but they don't come back out of the water to lay their eggs."
"So they mate here before they go into the water."
"Fine, of course, obviously. I've seen them mating. That's not the problem. The problem is, why are they watersnakes?"
He still didn't get it.
"Look, they're completely adapted to life underwater. They have gills along with lungs, they're superb swimmers, they have fins for guidance, they are completely evolved for adult life in the water. Why would they ever have evolved that way if they are born on land, mate on land, and reproduce on land? As far as evolution is concerned, anything that happens after you reproduce is completely irrelevant, except if you nurture your young, and the watersnakes definitely don't nurture. Living in the water does nothing to enhance their ability to survive until they reproduce. They could slither into the water and drown and it wouldn't matter because reproduction is over."
"Yes," said the Speaker. "I see now."
"There are little clear eggs in the water, though. I've never seen a watersnake lay them, but since there's no other animal in or near the river large enough to lay the eggs, it seems logical that they're watersnake eggs. Only these big clear eggs-- a centimeter across-- they're completely sterile. The nutrients are there, everything's ready, but there's no embryo. Nothing. Some of them have a