Click image to enlarge Amazon molly (Poecilia Formosa). Photo courtesy of Dr. Dunja Lamatsch

An all-female fish species has survived for as long as 100,000 years without reproducing sexually, according to researchers.

Research conducted by Dr. Dunja Lamatsch and Dr. Laurence Loewe shows that the Amazon Molly (Poecilia Formosa) may be using special genetic survival tricks to avoid extinction.

Using advanced computer models, the researchers have said that the Amazon molly should have gone extinct about 70,000 years ago.

The Amazon molly is aided in the reproductive process by members of other molly species, but the DNA from the male is not found in the offspring.

Research appears in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.