Before about 25 years ago, the species simply did not exist. A single drastic mutation (due to polluted Texas freshwater ponds) in a single crayfish produced the marbled crayfish in an instant. What chemicals caused its mutation are currently unknown, what factors lead to its creation are unknown. All is known is that it originated in Texas, and mutated into a self replicating animal due to unknown chemical forces on its reproductive system from exposure to its habitat.
The mutation made it possible for the creature to clone itself, and now it has spread across much of Europe and gained a toehold on other continents. In Madagascar, where it arrived about 2007, it now numbers in the millions and threatens nearly all native fresh water life.
“We may never have caught the genome of a species so soon after it became a species,” said Zen Faulkes, a biologist at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, who was not involved in the new study.
