the FIRST tribble...

[RobertScorpio]

We were watching THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES just this past sunday. And there is a line where McCoy says that the tribbles are born pregnant. Now, does McCoy mean that ALL tribbles are born pregnant?

This means the tribbles do not have, ummm, furry sex. So my son asked me, very dead pan for a 6 year old, where did the first tribble come from?

Any takers?

Rob

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

They likely came from a pre-tribble species that was not "born pregnant." I would imagine there was a mutated offspring that had a sort of fetus in fetu situation, except the offspring survived and proved to be a competitive advantage in an unstable environment (r-strategy reproduction, as opposed to the humanoid K-strategy).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory

 

[scotpens]

According to Dr. McCoy, tribbles are “bisexual, reproducing at will -- and, brother, have they got a lot of will.” (I assume he meant “bisexual” in a biological, not a psychological sense. I blanch at the thought that a 6-inch-diameter furball could have gender identity issues.) So tribbles are hermaphroditic, like snails. That is, they reproduce sexually, but each animal has both male and female, uh, parts.

As for McCoy's line, “The nearest thing I can figure out is they're born pregnant, which seems to be quite a timesaver” -- I always took that as a joke. I don't think the good doctor meant it literally.

 

[Xerxes1979]

you want to see something weird. Check out the extreme sexual dimorphism of the Anglerfish. The male is a tiny helpless parasite that lives off the female.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglerfish

 

[scotpens]

Check out the extreme sexual dimorphism of the Anglerfish. The male is a tiny helpless parasite that lives off the female.

Sounds like some showbiz marriages.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Check out the extreme sexual dimorphism of the Anglerfish. The male is a tiny helpless parasite that lives off the female.

Sounds like some showbiz marriages.

showbiz marriages only?

Rob

 

[barnaclelapse]

An aging hooker's vagina.

Look it up on Reading Rainbow. They did a whole, vaguely inappropriate episode about it.

 

[Lonemagpie]

If Planet Of The Tribbles ever gets commissioned and published you'd find out in the chapter titled Genesis Of The Tribbles.

No, I'm not kidding.

 

[Myasishchev]

The tribbles may reproduce by parthenogenesis as well as sexual reproduction, so they're born pregnant (with a clone of themselves) but can also receive gametes from a partner once born. Also, since they're hermaphroditic, they could conceivably fertilize themselves in utero; they could of course also be fertilized by sibling tribbles in utero.

in a funny speculation in What Would a Martian Look Like?, the authors go through a semi-plausible evolutionary development of the tribble.

 

[The Wormhole]

Which came first: the tribble or the egg?

Now I got an image in my head of old man Picard in AGT: "It's like the tribble and the egg, Will, the tribble and the egg!"

 

[Joel_Kirk]

We were watching THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES just this past sunday. And there is a line where McCoy says that the tribbles are born pregnant. Now, does McCoy mean that ALL tribbles are born pregnant?

This means the tribbles do not have, ummm, furry sex. So my son asked me, very dead pan for a 6 year old, where did the first tribble come from?

Any takers?

Rob

There was one tribble...with a high count of Midichlorians...

 

[Valin]

That would have just been the beginning of the Republic's tribbles.

 

[Biggshow]

That would have just been the beginning of the Republic's tribbles.

Wanh-waanh...

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Maybe the first tribble was named Eve?

 

[RobertScorpio]

or Ellen

 

[Chuckling]

Cute Robert. Real cute! *chuckle*

 

[Valin]

Maybe the first tribble was named Eve?

Because of that name, the tribble would have gotten a ribbing.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Maybe the first tribble was named Eve?

Because of that name, the tribble would have gotten a ribbing.

<Groan>