title: Philip V of Spain

text: Philip was born on 19 December 1683 at the Palace of Versailles in France, the second son of Louis, Grand Dauphin, the heir apparent to the throne of France, and his wife Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria, known as the "Dauphine Victoire". His father was the eldest son of Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Philip was a younger brother of Louis, Duke of Burgundy, the father of Louis XV of France. At birth, Philip was created Duke of Anjou, a traditional title for younger sons in the French royal family. He would be known by this name until he became the King of Spain. Since Philip's older brother, the Duke of Burgundy, was second in line to the French throne after his father, there was little expectation that either he or his younger brother Charles, Duke of Berry, would ever rule over France.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Philip lived his first years under the supervision of the royal governess Louise de Prie and after that was tutored with his brothers by François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai. The three were also educated by Paul de Beauvilliers.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: In 1700, King Charles II of Spain, the last Habsburg to rule Spain, died childless. His will named as successor Philip, grandson of Charles' half-sister Maria Theresa, the first wife of Louis XIV. Upon any possible refusal, the crown of Spain would be offered next to Philip's younger brother, the Duke of Berry, then to the Archduke Charles of Austria, later Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. Philip had the better genealogical claim to the Spanish throne, because his Spanish grandmother and great-grandmother were older than the ancestors of the Archduke Charles of Austria. However, the Austrians maintained that Philip's grandmother had renounced the Spanish throne for herself and her descendants as part of her marriage contract. That renunciation was contingent on her dowry being paid. The French claim to Spain was due to the dowry having never been paid.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: After a long Royal Council meeting in France at which the Dauphin spoke up in favor of his son's rights, it was agreed that Philip would ascend the throne, but he would forever renounce his claim to the throne of France for himself and his descendants. The Royal Council decided to accept the provisions of the will of Charles II naming Philip, King of Spain, and the Spanish ambassador was called in and introduced to the new king. The ambassador, along with his son, knelt before Philip and made a long speech in Spanish, which Philip did not understand. (Louis XIV, the son and husband of Spanish princesses, did speak Spanish, but Philip learned only later.)


title: Philip V of Spain

text: On 2 November 1701, the almost 18-year-old Philip married the 13-year-old Maria Luisa of Savoy, as chosen by his grandfather King Louis XIV. She was the daughter of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy, and his wife Anne Marie d'Orléans, Philip's first cousin once removed. The Duke and Duchess of Savoy were also the parents of Princess Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, Duchess of Burgundy, Philip's sister-in-law. There was a proxy ceremony at Turin, the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, and another one at Versailles on 11 September.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Maria Luisa proved very popular as Queen of Spain. She served as regent for her husband on several occasions. Her most successful term was when Philip was away touring his Italian domains for nine months in 1702, when she was just 14 years old. On entering Naples that year he was presented with Bernini's "Boy with a Dragon" by Carlo Barberini. In 1714, Maria Luisa died at the age of 26 from tuberculosis, a devastating emotional blow to her husband.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: The actions of Louis XIV heightened the fears of the English, the Dutch and the Austrians, among others. In February 1701, Louis XIV caused the "Parlement" of Paris (a court) to register a decree that if Philip's elder brother, the "Petit Dauphin" Louis, died without an heir, then Philip would surrender the throne of Spain for the succession to the throne of France, ensuring dynastic continuity in Europe's greatest land power.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: However, a second act of the French king "justified a hostile interpretation": pursuant to a treaty with Spain, Louis occupied several towns in the Spanish Netherlands (modern Belgium and Nord-Pas-de-Calais). This was the spark that ignited the powder keg created by the unresolved issues of the War of the League of Augsburg (1689–1697) and the acceptance of the Spanish inheritance by Louis XIV for his grandson.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Almost immediately the War of the Spanish Succession began. Concern among other European powers that Spain and France united under a single Bourbon monarch would upset the balance of power pitted France and Spain against the Grand Alliance of England, the Netherlands and Austria.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Inside Spain, the Crown of Castile supported Philip of France. On the other hand, the majority of the nobility of the Crown of Aragon supported Charles of Austria, son of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and claimant to the Spanish throne by right of his grandmother Maria Anna of Spain. Charles was even hailed as King of Aragon under the name Charles III.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: The war was centred in Spain and west-central Europe (especially the Low Countries), with other important fighting in Germany and Italy. Prince Eugene of Savoy and the Duke of Marlborough distinguished themselves as military commanders in the Low Countries. In colonial North America, the conflict became known to the English colonists who fought against French and Spanish forces as Queen Anne's War. Over the course of the fighting, some 400,000 people were killed.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: It was with this war as a backdrop that, beginning in 1707, Philip issued the Nueva Planta decrees, which centralized Spanish rule under the Castilian political and administrative model and in the process abolished the charters of all independently administered kingdoms within Spain—most notably the Crown of Aragon, which was supporting Charles VI in the conflict—except for the Kingdom of Navarre and the rest of the Basque region, who had supported Philip in the war for the Spanish throne, and retained their semi-autonomous self-government. The policy of centralization had as model the French State under Louis XIV and was strongly supported by politicians such as Joseph de Solís and the Sardinian political philosopher Vicente Bacallar.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: At one point in 1712 Philip was offered the choice of renouncing the throne of Spain so that he could be made heir of France, but he refused.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Philip decided to relinquish his right of succession to France under one condition: the introduction of semi-Salic law in Spain. Under this law, the succession to the Spanish crown was limited to his entire male line before it could pass to any female, a condition of his renunciation made clear to the allies during the preliminaries of the Treaties of Utrecht. It was not until this was successfully accomplished (10 May 1713) that Spain and Great Britain made their own peace terms at the second Treaty of Utrecht (annexing the new law to the Treaty). By the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht that concluded the war, Philip was recognized as king of Spain but Spain was forced to cede Menorca and Gibraltar to Great Britain; the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Milan, and Sardinia to the Austrian Habsburgs; and Sicily and parts of Milan to Savoy.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: These losses greatly diminished the Spanish Empire in Europe, which had already been in decline. Throughout his reign, Philip sought to reverse the decline of Spanish power. Trying to overturn the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, he attempted to re-establish Spanish claims in Italy, triggering the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–1720) in which Spain fought a coalition of four major powers. Phillip V was forced to sue for peace.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Shortly after the death of Queen Maria Luisa in 1714, the King decided to marry again. His second wife was Elisabeth of Parma, daughter of Odoardo Farnese, Hereditary Prince of Parma, and Dorothea Sophie of the Palatinate. At the age of 22, on 24 December 1714, she was married to the 31-year-old Philip by proxy in Parma. The marriage was arranged by Cardinal Alberoni, with the concurrence of the Princesse des Ursins, the "Camarera mayor de Palacio" ("chief of the household") of the king of Spain.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: On 14 January 1724, Philip abdicated the throne to his eldest son, the seventeen-year-old Louis, for reasons still subject to debate. One theory suggests that Philip V, who exhibited many elements of mental instability during his reign, did not wish to reign due to his increasing mental decline. A second theory puts the abdication in context of the Bourbon dynasty. The French royal family recently had lost many legitimate agnates to diseases. Indeed, Philip V's abdication occurred just over a month after the death of the Duke of Orléans, who had been regent for Louis XV of France. The lack of an heir made another continental war of succession a possibility. Philip V was a legitimate descendant of Louis XIV, but matters were complicated by the Treaty of Utrecht, which forbade a union of the French and Spanish crowns. The theory supposes that Philip V hoped that by abdicating the Spanish crown he could circumvent the Treaty and succeed to the French throne.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: In any case, Louis died on 31 August 1724 in Madrid of smallpox, having reigned only seven months and leaving no issue. Philip was forced to return to the Spanish throne in 1724.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Philip helped his Bourbon relatives to make territorial gains in the War of the Polish Succession and the War of the Austrian Succession by reconquering Naples and Sicily from Austria and Oran from the Ottomans. Finally, at the end of his reign Spanish forces also successfully defended their American territories from a large British invasion during the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739–1748).


title: Philip V of Spain

text: During Philip's reign, Spain began to recover from the stagnation it had suffered during the twilight of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty. Although the population of Spain grew, the financial and taxation systems were archaic and the treasury ran deficits. The king employed thousands of highly paid retainers at his palaces—not to assist with ruling the country but to look after the royal family. Meanwhile, the army and bureaucracy went months without pay. It was only the shipments of silver from the New World kept the system going. Spain suspended payments on its debt in 1739—effectively declaring bankruptcy.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Philip experienced bouts of manic depression and increasingly fell victim to a deep melancholia. His second wife, Elizabeth Farnese, completely dominated her passive husband. She bore him further sons, including another successor, Charles III of Spain. Beginning in August 1737 his mental illness was eased by the castrato singer Farinelli, who became the ""Musico de Camara" of Their Majesties." Farinelli would sing eight or nine arias for the king and queen every night, usually with a trio of musicians.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Philip died on 9 July 1746 in El Escorial, in Madrid, but was buried in his favorite Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, near Segovia. Ferdinand VI of Spain, his son by his first queen Maria Luisa of Savoy, succeeded him.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Historians have generally been unkind to the king. Lynch says Philip V advanced the government only marginally over that of his predecessors and was more of a liability than Charles II. When a conflict came up between the interests of Spain and France, he usually favored France. However, Philip did make some reforms in government, and strengthened the central authorities relative to the provinces. Merit became more important, although most senior positions still went to the landed aristocracy. Below the elite level, the inefficiency and corruption that had existed under Charles II was as widespread as ever. The reforms started by Philip V culminated in much more important reforms of Charles III. The economy, on the whole, improved over the previous half-century, with greater productivity, and fewer famines and epidemics. The government promoted industry, agriculture and shipbuilding. After the destruction of the main silver fleet at Vigo in 1702, the navy was rebuilt. Nevertheless, the new fleet was still too small to support the vast worldwide empire.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: To commemorate the indignities the city of Xàtiva suffered after Philip's victory in the Battle of Almansa in the War of the Spanish Succession, in which he ordered the city to be burned and renamed "San Felipe", the portrait of the monarch hangs upside down in the local museum of L'Almodí.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: The province of the New Philippines, which occupied parts of what is now Texas in the United States, was named in 1716 in honor of Philip.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Philip V favored and promoted the Atlantic trade of Spain with its American possessions. During this Atlantic trade emerged important figures of the naval history of Spain, among which stands out the corsair Amaro Pargo. Philip V frequently benefited the corsair in his commercial incursions and corsairs: he granted a Royal order given at the Royal Palace of El Pardo in Madrid in September 1714, in which he appointed him captain of a commercial ship bound for Caracas. The Monarch also interceded in the liberation of Amaro during his detention by the Casa de Contratación of Cádiz and authorized him to build a ship bound for Campeche, which was armed like a corsair ship.


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Philip married his double-second cousin Maria Luisa of Savoy (17 September 1688 – 14 February 1714) on 3 November 1701 and they had 4 sons:


title: Philip V of Spain

text: Philip married Elisabeth Farnese (25 October 1692 – 11 July 1766) on 24 December 1714, they had 6 children:


title: Nineveh

text: Nineveh (; ; Biblical Hebrew: '; '; ) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River and was the capital and largest city of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, as well as the largest city in the world for several decades. Today, it is a common name for the half of Mosul that lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and the country's Nineveh Governorate takes its name from it.


title: Nineveh

text: It was the largest city in the world for approximately fifty years until the year 612 BC when, after a bitter period of civil war in Assyria, it was sacked by a coalition of its former subject peoples including the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Scythians and Cimmerians. The city was never again a political or administrative centre, but by Late Antiquity it was the seat of a Christian bishop. It declined relative to Mosul during the Middle Ages and was mostly abandoned by the 13th century AD.


title: Nineveh

text: Its ruins lie across the river from the historical city center of Mosul, in Iraq's Nineveh Governorate. The two main tells, or mound-ruins, within the walls are Tell Kuyunjiq and Tell Nabī Yūnus, site of a shrine to Jonah, the prophet who preached to Nineveh. Large amounts of Assyrian sculpture and other artifacts have been excavated there, and are now located in museums around the world.


title: Nineveh

text: The English placename Nineveh comes from Latin ' and Septuagint Greek "Nineuḗ" () under influence of the Biblical Hebrew "Nīnəweh" (), from the Akkadian ' ( "Ninâ") or Old Babylonian "". The original meaning of the name is unclear but may have referred to a patron goddess. The cuneiform for "Ninâ" () is a fish within a house (cf. Aramaic "nuna", "fish"). This may have simply intended "Place of Fish" or may have indicated a goddess associated with fish or the Tigris, possibly originally of Hurrian origin. The city was later said to be devoted to "the goddess Ishtar of Nineveh" and "Nina" was one of the Sumerian and Assyrian names of that goddess.


title: Nineveh

text: Additionally, the word נון/נונא in Old Babylonian refers to the Anthiinae genus of fish, further indicating the possibility of an association between the name Nineveh and fish.


title: Nineveh

text: The city was also known as "Ninuwa" in Mari; "Ninawa" in Aramaic; Ninwe (ܢܸܢܘܵܐ) in Syriac; and "Nainavā" () in Persian.


title: Nineveh

text: "Nabī Yūnus" is the Arabic for "Prophet Jonah". "Kuyunjiq" was, according to Layard, a Turkish name (Layard used the form "kouyunjik", diminutive of "koyun", "sheep" in Turkish), and it was known as "Armousheeah" by the Arabs, and is thought to have some connection with the Kara Koyunlu dynasty. These toponyms refer to the areas to the North and South of the Khosr stream, respectively: Kuyunjiq is the name for the whole northern sector enclosed by the city walls and is dominated by the large (35 ha) mound of Tell Kuyunjiq, while Nabī (or more commonly Nebi) Yunus is the southern sector around of the mosque of Prophet Yunus/Jonah, which is located on Tell Nebi Yunus.


title: Nineveh

text: The remains of ancient Nineveh, the areas of Kuyunjiq and Nabī Yūnus with their mounds, are located on a level part of the plain at the junction of the Tigris and the Khosr Rivers within an area of circumscribed by a fortification wall. This whole extensive space is now one immense area of ruins overlaid by c. one third by the Nebi Yunus suburbs of the city of eastern Mosul.


title: Nineveh

text: The site of ancient Nineveh is bisected by the Khosr river. North of the Khosr, the site is called Kuyunjiq, including the acropolis of Tell Kuyunjiq; the illegal village of Rahmaniye lay in eastern Kuyunjiq. South of the Khosr, the urbanized area is called Nebi Yunus (also Ghazliya, Jezayr, Jammasa), including Tell Nebi Yunus where the mosque of the Prophet Jonah and a palace of Esarhaddon/Ashurbanipal below it are located. South of the street Al-'Asady (made by Daesh destroying swaths of the city walls) the area is called Jounub Ninawah or Shara Pepsi.


title: Nineveh

text: Nineveh was an important junction for commercial routes crossing the Tigris on the great roadway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, thus uniting the East and the West, it received wealth from many sources, so that it became one of the greatest of all the region's ancient cities, and the last capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.


title: Nineveh

text: Nineveh was one of the oldest and greatest cities in antiquity. Texts from the Hellenistic period later offered an eponymous Ninus as the founder of Νίνου πόλις (Ninopolis), although there is no historical basis for this. Book of Genesis 10:11 says "Nimrod", possibly meaning Sargon I, built Nineveh. The context of Nineveh was as one of many centers within the regional development of Upper Mesopotamia. This area is defined as the plains which can support rain-fed agriculture. It exists as a narrow band from the Syrian coast to the Zagros mountains. It is bordered by deserts to the south and mountains to the north. The cultural practices, technology, and economy in this region were shared and they followed a similar trajectory out of the neolithic.


title: Nineveh

text: Caves in the Zagros Mountains adjacent to the north side of the Nineveh Plains were used as PPNA settlements, most famously Shanidar Cave. Nineveh itself was founded as early as 6000 BC during the late Neolithic period. Deep sounding at Nineveh uncovered soil layers that have been dated to early in the era of the Hassuna archaeological culture. The development and culture of Nineveh paralleled Tepe Gawra and Tell Arpachiyah a few kilometers to the northeast. Nineveh was a typical farming village in the Halaf Period.


title: Nineveh

text: In 5000 BC, Nineveh transitioned from a Halaf village to an Ubaid village. During the Late Chalcolithic period Nineveh was part one of the few Ubaid villages in Upper Mesopotamia which became a proto-city Ugarit, Brak, Hamoukar, Arbela, Alep, and regionally at Susa, Eridu, Nippur. During the period between 4500 and 4000 BC it grew to 40ha.


title: Nineveh

text: The greater Nineveh area is notable in the diffusion of metal technology across the near east as the first location outside of Anatolia to smelt copper. Tell Arpachiyah has the oldest copper smelting remains, and Tepe Gawa has the oldest metal work. The copper came from the mines at Ergani.


title: Nineveh

text: Nineveh became a trade colony of Uruk during the Uruk Expansion because of its location as the highest navigable point on the Tigris. It was contemporary and had a similar function to Habuba Kabira on the Euphrates. By 3000 BC, Kish civilization had expanded into Nineveh. At this time, the main temple of Nineveh becomes known as Ishtar temple, re-dedicated to the Semite goddess Ishtar, in the form of Ishtar of Nineveh. Ishtar of Nineveh was conflated with Šauška from the Hurro-Urartian pantheon. This temple was called 'House of Exorcists' (Cuneiform: 𒂷𒈦𒈦 GA.MAŠ.MAŠ; Sumerian: e mašmaš). The context of the etymology surrounding the name is the Exorcist called a Mashmash in Sumerian, was a freelance magician who operated independent of the official priesthood, and was in part a medical professional via the act of expelling demons.


title: Nineveh

text: The regional influence of Nineveh became particularly pronounced during the archaeological period known as "Ninevite 5", or "Ninevite V" (2900–2600 BC). This period is defined primarily by the characteristic pottery that is found widely throughout Upper Mesopotamia. Also, for the Upper Mesopotamian region, the "Early Jezirah" chronology has been developed by archaeologists. According to this regional chronology, 'Ninevite 5' is equivalent to the Early Jezirah I–II period.


title: Nineveh

text: Ninevite 5 was preceded by the Late Uruk period. Ninevite 5 pottery is roughly contemporary to the Early Transcaucasian culture ware, and the Jemdet Nasr period ware. Iraqi "Scarlet Ware" culture also belongs to this period; this colourful painted pottery is somewhat similar to Jemdet Nasr ware. Scarlet Ware was first documented in the Diyala River basin in Iraq. Later, it was also found in the nearby Hamrin Basin, and in Luristan. It is also contemporary with the Proto-Elamite period in Susa.


title: Nineveh

text: At this time Nineveh was still an autonomous city-state. It was incorporated into the Akkadian Empire. The early city (and subsequent buildings) was constructed on a fault line and, consequently, suffered damage from a number of earthquakes. One such event destroyed the first temple of Ishtar, which was rebuilt in 2260 BC by the Akkadian king Manishtushu.


title: Nineveh

text: After the fall of Ur in 2000 BC, with the transition into the Middle Bronze, Nineveh was absorbed into the rising power of Assyria.


title: Nineveh

text: The historic Nineveh is mentioned in the Old Assyrian Empire during the reign of Shamshi-Adad I (1809-1775) in about 1800 BC as a centre of worship of Ishtar, whose cult was responsible for the city's early importance.


title: Nineveh

text: The goddess's statue was sent to Pharaoh Amenhotep III of Egypt in the 14th century BC, by orders of the king of Mitanni. The Assyrian city of Nineveh became one of Mitanni's vassals for half a century until the early 14th century BC.


title: Nineveh

text: The Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I reclaimed it in 1365 BC while overthrowing the Mitanni Empire and creating the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BC).


title: Nineveh

text: There is a large body of evidence to show that Assyrian monarchs built extensively in Nineveh during the late 3rd and 2nd millenniums BC; it appears to have been originally an "Assyrian provincial town". Later monarchs whose inscriptions have appeared on the high city include the Middle Assyrian Empire kings Shalmaneser I (1274–1245 BC) and Tiglath-Pileser I (1114–1076 BC), both of whom were active builders in Assur (Ashur).


title: Nineveh

text: During the Neo-Assyrian Empire, particularly from the time of Ashurnasirpal II (ruled 883–859 BC) onward, there was considerable architectural expansion. Successive monarchs such as Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal maintained and founded new palaces, as well as temples to Sîn, Ashur, Nergal, Shamash, Ninurta, Ishtar, Tammuz, Nisroch and Nabu.


title: Nineveh

text: It was Sennacherib who made Nineveh a truly magnificent city (c. 700 BC). He laid out new streets and squares and built within it the South West Palace, or "palace without a rival", the plan of which has been mostly recovered and has overall dimensions of about . It comprised at least 80 rooms, many of which were lined with sculpture. A large number of cuneiform tablets were found in the palace. The solid foundation was made out of limestone blocks and mud bricks; it was tall. In total, the foundation is made of roughly of brick (approximately 160 million bricks). The walls on top, made out of mud brick, were an additional tall.


title: Nineveh

text: Some of the principal doorways were flanked by colossal stone "lamassu" door figures weighing up to ; these were winged Mesopotamian lions or bulls, with human heads. These were transported from quarries at Balatai, and they had to be lifted up once they arrived at the site, presumably by a ramp. There are also of stone Assyrian palace reliefs, that include pictorial records documenting every construction step including carving the statues and transporting them on a barge. One picture shows 44 men towing a colossal statue. The carving shows three men directing the operation while standing on the Colossus. Once the statues arrived at their destination, the final carving was done. Most of the statues weigh between .


title: Nineveh

text: The stone carvings in the walls include many battle scenes, impalings and scenes showing Sennacherib's men parading the spoils of war before him. The inscriptions boasted of his conquests: he wrote of Babylon: "Its inhabitants, young and old, I did not spare, and with their corpses I filled the streets of the city." A full and characteristic set shows the campaign leading up to the siege of Lachish in 701; it is the "finest" from the reign of Sennacherib, and now in the British Museum. He later wrote about a battle in Lachish: "And Hezekiah of Judah who had not submitted to my yoke...him I shut up in Jerusalem his royal city like a caged bird. Earthworks I threw up against him, and anyone coming out of his city gate I made pay for his crime. His cities which I had plundered I had cut off from his land."


title: Nineveh

text: At this time, the total area of Nineveh comprised about , and fifteen great gates penetrated its walls. An elaborate system of eighteen canals brought water from the hills to Nineveh, and several sections of a magnificently constructed aqueduct erected by Sennacherib were discovered at Jerwan, about distant. The enclosed area had more than 100,000 inhabitants (maybe closer to 150,000), about twice as many as Babylon at the time, placing it among the largest settlements worldwide.


title: Nineveh

text: Some scholars such as Stephanie Dalley at Oxford believe that the garden which Sennacherib built next to his palace, with its associated irrigation works, were the original Hanging Gardens of Babylon; Dalley's argument is based on a disputation of the traditional placement of the Hanging Gardens attributed to Berossus together with a combination of literary and archaeological evidence.


title: Nineveh

text: The greatness of Nineveh was short-lived. In around 627 BC, after the death of its last great king Ashurbanipal, the Neo-Assyrian Empire began to unravel through a series of bitter civil wars between rival claimants for the throne, and in 616 BC Assyria was attacked by its own former vassals, the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Scythians and Cimmerians. In about 616 BC Kalhu was sacked, the allied forces eventually reached Nineveh, besieging and sacking the city in 612 BC, following bitter house-to-house fighting, after which it was razed. Most of the people in the city who could not escape to the last Assyrian strongholds in the north and west were either massacred or deported out of the city and into the countryside where they founded new settlements. Many unburied skeletons were found by the archaeologists at the site. The Assyrian Empire then came to an end by 605 BC, the Medes and Babylonians dividing its colonies between themselves.


title: Nineveh

text: It is not clear whether Nineveh came under the rule of the Medes or the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 612. The Babylonian "Chronicle Concerning the Fall of Nineveh" records that Nineveh was "turned into mounds and heaps", but this is literary hyperbole. The complete destruction of Nineveh has traditionally been seen as confirmed by the Hebrew "Book of Ezekiel" and the Greek "Retreat of the Ten Thousand" of Xenophon (d. 354 BC). There are no later cuneiform tablets in Akkadian from Nineveh. Although devastated in 612, the city was not completely abandoned. Yet, to the Greek historians Ctesias and Herodotus (c. 400 BC), Nineveh was a thing of the past; and when Xenophon passed the place in the 4th century BC he described it as abandoned.


title: Nineveh

text: The earliest piece of written evidence for the persistence of Nineveh as a settlement is possibly the Cyrus Cylinder of 539/538 BC, but the reading of this is disputed. If correctly read as Nineveh, it indicates that Cyrus the Great restored the temple of Ishtar at Nineveh and probably encouraged resettlement. A number of cuneiform Elamite tablets have been found at Nineveh. They probably date from the time of the revival of Elam in the century following the collapse of Assyria. The Hebrew "Book of Jonah", which Stephanie Dalley asserts was written in the 4th century BC, is an account of the city's repentance and God's mercy which prevented destruction.


title: Nineveh

text: Archaeologically, there is evidence of repairs at the temple of Nabu after 612 and for the continued use of Sennacherib's palace. There is evidence of syncretic Hellenistic cults. A statue of Hermes has been found and a Greek inscription attached to a shrine of the Sebitti. A statue of Herakles Epitrapezios dated to the 2nd century AD has also been found. The library of Ashurbanipal may still have been in use until around the time of Alexander the Great.


title: Nineveh

text: The city was actively resettled under the Seleucid Empire. There is evidence of more changes in Sennacherib's palace under the Parthian Empire. The Parthians also established a municipal mint at Nineveh coining in bronze. According to Tacitus, in AD 50 Meherdates, a claimant to the Parthian throne with Roman support, took Nineveh.


title: Nineveh

text: By Late Antiquity, Nineveh was restricted to the east bank of the Tigris and the west bank was uninhabited. Under the Sasanian Empire, Nineveh was not an administrative centre. By the 2nd century AD there were Christians present and by 554 it was a bishopric of the Church of the East. King Khosrow II (591–628) built a fortress on the west bank, and two Christian monasteries were constructed around 570 and 595. This growing settlement was not called Mosul until after the Arab conquests. It may have been called Hesnā ʿEbrāyē (Jews' Fort).


title: Nineveh

text: In 627, the city was the site of the Battle of Nineveh between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanians. In 641, it was conquered by the Arabs, who built a mosque on the west bank and turned it into an administrative centre. Under the Umayyad dynasty, it eclipsed Nineveh, which was reduced to a Christian suburb with limited new construction. By the 13th century, Nineveh was mostly ruins. A church was converted into a Muslim shrine to the prophet Jonah, which continued to attract pilgrims until its destruction by ISIL in 2014.


title: Nineveh

text: In the Hebrew Bible, Nineveh is first mentioned in Genesis 10:11: "Ashur left that land, and built Nineveh". Some modern English translations interpret "Ashur" in the Hebrew of this verse as the country "Assyria" rather than a person, thus making Nimrod, rather than Ashur, the founder of Nineveh. Sir Walter Raleigh's notion that Nimrod built Nineveh, and the cities in Genesis 10:11–12, has also been refuted by scholars. The discovery of the fifteen Jubilees texts found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls has since shown that, according to the Jewish sects of Qumran, Genesis 10:11 affirms the apportionment of Nineveh to Ashur. The attribution of Nineveh to Ashur is also supported by the Greek Septuagint, King James Bible, Geneva Bible, and by Roman historian Flavius Josephus in his "Antiquities of the Jews" (Antiquities, i, vi, 4).


title: Nineveh

text: Nineveh was the flourishing capital of the Assyrian Empire and was the home of King Sennacherib, King of Assyria, during the Biblical reign of King Hezekiah () and the lifetime of Judean prophet Isaiah (). As recorded in Hebrew scripture, Nineveh was also the place where Sennacherib died at the hands of his two sons, who then fled to the vassal land of "`rrt" (Urartu). The book of the prophet Nahum is almost exclusively taken up with prophetic denunciations against Nineveh. Its ruin and utter desolation are foretold. Its end was strange, sudden, and tragic. According to the Bible, it was God's doing, his judgment on Assyria's pride. In fulfillment of prophecy, God made "an utter end of the place". It became a "desolation". The prophet Zephaniah also predicts its destruction along with the fall of the empire of which it was the capital. Nineveh is also the setting of the Book of Tobit.


title: Nineveh

text: The Book of Jonah, set in the days of the Assyrian Empire, describes it as an "exceedingly great city of three days' journey in breadth", whose population at that time is given as "more than 120,000". Genesis 10:11–12 lists four cities "Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen", ambiguously stating that either Resen or Calah is "the great city". The ruins of Kuyunjiq, Nimrud, Karamlesh and Khorsabad form the four corners of an irregular quadrilateral. The ruins of the "great city" Nineveh, with the whole area included within the parallelogram they form by lines drawn from the one to the other, are generally regarded as consisting of these four sites. The description of Nineveh in Jonah likely was a reference to greater Nineveh, including the surrounding cities of Rehoboth, Calah and Resen The Book of Jonah depicts Nineveh as a wicked city worthy of destruction. God sent Jonah to preach to the Ninevites of their coming destruction, and they fasted and repented because of this. As a result, God spared the city; when Jonah protests against this, God states he is showing mercy for the population who are ignorant of the difference between right and wrong ("who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand") and mercy for the animals in the city.


title: Nineveh

text: Nineveh's repentance and salvation from evil can be found in the Hebrew Tanakh, also known as the Old Testament), and referred to in the Christian New Testament and Muslim Quran. To this day, Syriac and Oriental Orthodox churches commemorate the three days Jonah spent inside the fish during the Fast of Nineveh. Some Christians observe this holiday fast by refraining from food and drink, with churches encouraging followers to refrain from meat, fish and dairy products.


title: Nineveh

text: The location of Nineveh was known, to some, continuously through the Middle Ages. Benjamin of Tudela visited it in 1170; Petachiah of Regensburg soon after.


title: Nineveh

text: Carsten Niebuhr recorded its location during the 1761–1767 Danish expedition. Niebuhr wrote afterwards that "I did not learn that I was at so remarkable a spot, till near the river. Then they showed me a village on a great hill, which they call Nunia, and a mosque, in which the prophet Jonah was buried. Another hill in this district is called Kalla Nunia, or the Castle of Nineveh. On that lies a village Koindsjug."


title: Nineveh

text: In 1842, the French Consul General at Mosul, Paul-Émile Botta, began to search the vast mounds that lay along the opposite bank of the river. While at Tell Kuyunjiq he had little success, the locals whom he employed in these excavations, to their great surprise, came upon the ruins of a building at the 20 km far-away mound of Khorsabad, which, on further exploration, turned out to be the royal palace of Sargon II, in which large numbers of reliefs were found and recorded, though they had been damaged by fire and were mostly too fragile to remove.


title: Nineveh

text: In 1847 the young British diplomat Austen Henry Layard explored the ruins. Layard did not use modern archaeological methods; his stated goal was "to obtain the largest possible number of well preserved objects of art at the least possible outlay of time and money". In the Kuyunjiq mound, Layard rediscovered in 1849 the lost palace of Sennacherib with its 71 rooms and colossal bas-reliefs. He also unearthed the palace and famous library of Ashurbanipal with 22,000 cuneiform clay tablets. Most of Layard's material was sent to the British Museum, but others were dispersed elsewhere as two large pieces which were given to Lady Charlotte Guest and eventually found their way to the Metropolitan Museum. The study of the archaeology of Nineveh reveals the wealth and glory of ancient Assyria under kings such as Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) and Ashurbanipal (669–626 BC).


title: Nineveh

text: The work of exploration was carried on by Hormuzd Rassam (an Assyrian), George Smith and others, and a vast treasury of specimens of Assyria was incrementally exhumed for European museums. Palace after palace was discovered, with their decorations and their sculptured slabs, revealing the life and manners of this ancient people, their arts of war and peace, the forms of their religion, the style of their architecture, and the magnificence of their monarchs.


title: Nineveh

text: The mound of Kuyunjiq was excavated again by the archaeologists of the British Museum, led by Leonard William King, at the beginning of the 20th century. Their efforts concentrated on the site of the Temple of Nabu, the god of writing, where another cuneiform library was supposed to exist. However, no such library was ever found: most likely, it had been destroyed by the activities of later residents.


title: Nineveh

text: The excavations started again in 1927, under the direction of Campbell Thompson, who had taken part in King's expeditions. Some works were carried out outside Kuyunjiq, for instance on the mound of Tell Nebi Yunus, which was the ancient arsenal of Nineveh, or along the outside walls. Here, near the northwestern corner of the walls, beyond the pavement of a later building, the archaeologists found almost 300 fragments of prisms recording the royal annals of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal, beside a prism of Esarhaddon which was almost perfect.


title: Nineveh

text: After the Second World War, several excavations were carried out by Iraqi archaeologists. From 1951 to 1958, Mohammed Ali Mustafa worked the site. The work was continued from 1967 through 1971 by Tariq Madhloom. Some additional excavation occurred by Manhal Jabur from the early 1970s to 1987. For the most part, these digs focused on Tell Nebi Yunus.


title: Nineveh

text: The British archaeologist and Assyriologist Professor David Stronach of the University of California, Berkeley conducted a series of surveys and digs at the site from 1987 to 1990, focusing his attentions on the several gates and the existent mudbrick walls, as well as the system that supplied water to the city in times of siege. The excavation reports are in progress.


title: Nineveh

text: Most recently, an Iraqi–Italian Archaeological Expedition by the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna and the Iraqi SBAH, led by Nicolò Marchetti, began (with four campaigns having taken place thus far between 2019 and 2022) a long-term project aiming at the excavation, conservation and public presentation of the lower town of Nineveh. Work was carried out in eighteen excavation areas, from the Adad Gate – now completely repaired (after removing hundreds of tons of debris from ISIL's destructions), explored and protected with a new roof – deep into the Nebi Yunus town. In a few areas a thick later stratigraphy was encountered, but the late 7th century BC stratum was reached everywhere (actually in two areas in the pre-Sennacherib lower town the excavations already exposed older strata, up to the 11th century BC until now, aiming in the future at exploring the first settlement therein). The site is greatly endangered with dumping of debris, illegal settlements and quarrying as the main threats.


title: Nineveh

text: Today, Nineveh's location is marked by two large mounds, Tell Kuyunjiq and Tell "Nabī Yūnus" "Prophet Jonah", and the remains of the city walls (about in circumference). The Neo-Assyrian levels of Kuyunjiq have been extensively explored. The other mound, "Nabī Yūnus", has not been as extensively explored because there was an Arab Muslim shrine dedicated to that prophet on the site. On July 24, 2014, the Islamic State destroyed the shrine as part of a campaign to destroy religious sanctuaries it deemed "un-Islamic", but also to loot that site through tunneling.


title: Nineveh

text: The ruin mound of Kuyunjiq rises about above the surrounding plain of the ancient city. It is quite broad, measuring about . Its upper layers have been extensively excavated, and several Neo-Assyrian palaces and temples have been found there. A deep sounding by Max Mallowan revealed evidence of habitation as early as the 6th millennium BC. Today, there is little evidence of these old excavations other than weathered pits and earth piles. In 1990, the only Assyrian remains visible were those of the entry court and the first few chambers of the Palace of Sennacherib. Since that time, the palace chambers have received significant damage by looters. Portions of relief sculptures that were in the palace chambers in 1990 were seen on the antiquities market by 1996. Photographs of the chambers made in 2003 show that many of the fine relief sculptures there have been reduced to piles of rubble.


title: Nineveh

text: Tell Nebi Yunus is located about south of Kuyunjiq and is the secondary ruin mound at Nineveh. On the basis of texts of Sennacherib, the site has traditionally been identified as the "armory" of Nineveh, and a gate and pavements excavated by Iraqis in 1954 have been considered to be part of the "armory" complex. Excavations in 1990 revealed a monumental entryway consisting of a number of large inscribed orthostats and "bull-man" sculptures, some apparently unfinished.


title: Nineveh

text: Following the liberation of Mosul, the tunnels under Tell Nebi Yunus were explored in 2018, in which a 3000-year-old palace was discovered, including a pair of reliefs, each showing a row of women, along with reliefs of "lamassu".


title: Nineveh

text: The ruins of Nineveh are surrounded by the remains of a massive stone and mudbrick wall dating from about 700 BC. About 12 km in length, the wall system consisted of an ashlar stone retaining wall about high surmounted by a mudbrick wall about high and thick. The stone retaining wall had projecting stone towers spaced about every . The stone wall and towers were topped by three-step merlons.


title: Nineveh

text: By 2003, the site of Nineveh was exposed to decay of its reliefs by a lack of proper protective roofing, vandalism and looting holes dug into chamber floors. Future preservation is further compromised by the site's proximity to expanding suburbs.


title: Nineveh

text: The ailing Mosul Dam is a persistent threat to Nineveh as well as the city of Mosul. This is in no small part due to years of disrepair (in 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cited it as the most dangerous dam in the world), the cancellation of a second dam project in the 1980s to act as flood relief in case of failure, and occupation by ISIL in 2014 resulting in fleeing workers and stolen equipment. If the dam fails, the entire site could be under as much as 45 feet (14 m) of water.


title: Nineveh

text: In an October 2010 report titled "Saving Our Vanishing Heritage", Global Heritage Fund named Nineveh one of 12 sites most "on the verge" of irreparable destruction and loss, citing insufficient management, development pressures and looting as primary causes.


title: Nineveh

text: By far, the greatest threat to Nineveh has been purposeful human actions by ISIL, which first occupied the area in the mid-2010s. In early 2015, they announced their intention to destroy the walls of Nineveh if the Iraqis tried to liberate the city. They also threatened to destroy artifacts. On February 26 they destroyed several items and statues in the Mosul Museum and are believed to have plundered others to sell overseas. The items were mostly from the Assyrian exhibit, which ISIL declared blasphemous and idolatrous. There were 300 items remaining in the museum out of a total of 1,900, with the other 1,600 being taken to the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad for security reasons prior to the 2014 Fall of Mosul. Some of the artifacts sold and/or destroyed were from Nineveh. Just a few days after the destruction of the museum pieces, they demolished remains at major UNESCO world heritage sites Khorsabad, Nimrud, and Hatra.


title: Nineveh

text: Assyrians of the Ancient Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Assyrian Church of the East and Saint Thomas Christians of the Syro-Malabar Church observe a fast called "Ba'uta d-Ninwe" (ܒܥܘܬܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ) which means "Nineveh's Prayer". Copts and Ethiopian Orthodox also maintain this fast.


title: Nineveh

text: The English Romantic poet Edwin Atherstone wrote an epic "The Fall of Nineveh". The work tells of an uprising against its king Sardanapalus of all the nations that were dominated by the Assyrian Empire. He is a great criminal. He has had one hundred prisoners of war executed. After a long struggle the town is conquered by Median and Babylonian troops led by prince Arbaces and priest Belesis. The king sets his own palace on fire and dies inside together with all his concubines.


title: Nineveh

text: Atherstone's friend, the artist John Martin, created a painting of the same name inspired by the poem. The English poet John Masefield's well-known, fanciful 1903 poem "Cargoes" mentions Nineveh in its first line. Nineveh is also mentioned in Rudyard Kipling's 1897 poem "Recessional" and in Arthur O'Shaughnessy's 1873 poem "Ode".


title: Nineveh

text: The 1962 Italian peplum film "War Gods of Babylon", is based on the sacking and fall of Nineveh by the combined rebel armies led by the Babylonians.


title: Nineveh

text: In the 1973 film "The Exorcist", Father Lankester Merrin was on an archeological dig near Nineveh prior to returning to the United States and leading the exorcism of Reagan MacNiel.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenesis (; from the Greek + ) is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which growth and development of embryos occur in a gamete (egg or sperm) without combining with another gamete (e.g., egg and sperm fusing). In animals, parthenogenesis means development of an embryo from an unfertilized egg cell. In plants, parthenogenesis is a component process of apomixis. In algae, parthenogenesis can mean the development of an embryo from either an individual sperm or an individual egg.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenesis occurs naturally in some plants, algae, invertebrate animal species (including nematodes, some tardigrades, water fleas, some scorpions, aphids, some mites, some bees, some Phasmatodea and parasitic wasps) and a few vertebrates (such as some fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds). This type of reproduction has been induced artificially in a few species including fish, amphibians, and mice.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Normal egg cells form in the process of meiosis and are haploid, with half as many chromosomes as their mother's body cells. Haploid individuals, however, are usually non-viable, and parthenogenetic offspring usually have the diploid chromosome number. Depending on the mechanism involved in restoring the diploid number of chromosomes, parthenogenetic offspring may have anywhere between all and half of the mother's alleles. In some types of parthenogenesis the offspring having all of the mother's genetic material are called full clones and those having only half are called half clones. Full clones are usually formed without meiosis. If meiosis occurs, the offspring will get only a fraction of the mother's alleles since crossing over of DNA takes place during meiosis, creating variation.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenetic offspring in species that use either the XY or the X0 sex-determination system have two X chromosomes and are female. In species that use the ZW sex-determination system, they have either two Z chromosomes (male) or two W chromosomes (mostly non-viable but rarely a female), or they could have one Z and one W chromosome (female).


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Some species reproduce exclusively by parthenogenesis (such as the bdelloid rotifers), while others can switch between sexual reproduction and parthenogenesis. This is called facultative parthenogenesis (other terms are cyclical parthenogenesis, heterogamy or heterogony). The switch between sexuality and parthenogenesis in such species may be triggered by the season (aphid, some gall wasps), or by a lack of males or by conditions that favour rapid population growth (rotifers and cladocerans like "Daphnia"). In these species asexual reproduction occurs either in summer (aphids) or as long as conditions are favourable. This is because in asexual reproduction a successful genotype can spread quickly without being modified by sex or wasting resources on male offspring who won't give birth. Some species can produce both sexually and through parthenogenesis, and offspring in the same clutch of a species of tropical lizard can be a mix sexually produced offspring and parthenogenically produced offspring. In California Condors facultative parthenogenesis can occur even when a male is present and available for a female to breed with. In times of stress, offspring produced by sexual reproduction may be fitter as they have new, possibly beneficial gene combinations. In addition, sexual reproduction provides the benefit of meiotic recombination between non-sister chromosomes, a process associated with repair of DNA double-strand breaks and other DNA damages that may be induced by stressful conditions.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Many taxa with heterogony have within them species that have lost the sexual phase and are now completely asexual. Many other cases of obligate parthenogenesis (or gynogenesis) are found among polyploids and hybrids where the chromosomes cannot pair for meiosis.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: The production of female offspring by parthenogenesis is referred to as thelytoky (e.g., aphids) while the production of males by parthenogenesis is referred to as arrhenotoky (e.g., bees). When unfertilized eggs develop into both males and females, the phenomenon is called deuterotoky.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenesis can occur without meiosis through mitotic oogenesis. This is called "apomictic parthenogenesis". Mature egg cells are produced by mitotic divisions, and these cells directly develop into embryos. In flowering plants, cells of the gametophyte can undergo this process. The offspring produced by apomictic parthenogenesis are "full clones" of their mother. Examples include aphids.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenesis involving meiosis is more complicated. In some cases, the offspring are haploid (e.g., male ants). In other cases, collectively called "automictic parthenogenesis", the ploidy is restored to diploidy by various means. This is because haploid individuals are not viable in most species. In automictic parthenogenesis, the offspring differ from one another and from their mother. They are called "half clones" of their mother.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: "Automixis" is a term that covers several reproductive mechanisms, some of which are parthenogenetic.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Diploidy might be restored by the doubling of the chromosomes without cell division before meiosis begins or after meiosis is completed. This is referred to as an "endomitotic" cycle. This may also happen by the fusion of the first two blastomeres. Other species restore their ploidy by the fusion of the meiotic products. The chromosomes may not separate at one of the two anaphases (called "restitutional meiosis") or the nuclei produced may fuse or one of the polar bodies may fuse with the egg cell at some stage during its maturation.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Some authors consider all forms of automixis sexual as they involve recombination. Many others classify the endomitotic variants as asexual and consider the resulting embryos parthenogenetic. Among these authors, the threshold for classifying automixis as a sexual process depends on when the products of anaphase I or of anaphase II are joined. The criterion for "sexuality" varies from all cases of restitutional meiosis, to those where the nuclei fuse or to only those where gametes are mature at the time of fusion. Those cases of automixis that are classified as sexual reproduction are compared to self-fertilization in their mechanism and consequences.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: The genetic composition of the offspring depends on what type of automixis takes place. When endomitosis occurs before meiosis or when "central fusion" occurs (restitutional meiosis of anaphase I or the fusion of its products), the offspring get all to more than half of the mother's genetic material and heterozygosity is mostly preserved (if the mother has two alleles for a locus, it is likely that the offspring will get both). This is because in anaphase I the homologous chromosomes are separated. Heterozygosity is not completely preserved when crossing over occurs in central fusion. In the case of pre-meiotic doubling, recombination, if it happens, occurs between identical sister chromatids.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: If "terminal fusion" (restitutional meiosis of anaphase II or the fusion of its products) occurs, a little over half the mother's genetic material is present in the offspring and the offspring are mostly homozygous. This is because at anaphase II the sister chromatids are separated and whatever heterozygosity is present is due to crossing over. In the case of endomitosis after meiosis, the offspring is completely homozygous and has only half the mother's genetic material.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In apomictic parthenogenesis, the offspring are clones of the mother and hence (except for aphids) are usually female. In the case of aphids, parthenogenetically produced males and females are clones of their mother except that the males lack one of the X chromosomes (XO).


title: Parthenogenesis

text: When meiosis is involved, the sex of the offspring will depend on the type of sex determination system and the type of apomixis. In species that use the XY sex-determination system, parthenogenetic offspring will have two X chromosomes and are female. In species that use the ZW sex-determination system the offspring genotype may be one of ZW (female), ZZ (male), or WW (non-viable in most species but a fertile, viable female in a few (e.g., boas)). ZW offspring are produced by endoreplication before meiosis or by central fusion. ZZ and WW offspring occur either by terminal fusion or by endomitosis in the egg cell.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In many hymenopteran insects such as honeybees, female eggs are produced sexually, using sperm from a drone father, while the production of further drones (males) depends on the queen (and occasionally workers) producing unfertilized eggs. This means that females (workers and queens) are always diploid, while males (drones) are always haploid, and produced parthenogenetically.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Facultative parthenogenesis is the term for when a female can produce offspring either sexually or via asexual reproduction. Facultative parthenogenesis is extremely rare in nature, with only a few examples of animal taxa capable of facultative parthenogenesis. One of the best-known examples of taxa exhibiting facultative parthenogenesis are mayflies; presumably, this is the default reproductive mode of all species in this insect order. Facultative parthenogenesis has generally been believed to be a response to a lack of a viable male. A female may undergo facultative parthenogenesis if a male is absent from the habitat or if it is unable to produce viable offspring. However, California condors and the tropical lizard "Lepidophyma smithii" both can produce parthenogenic offspring in the presence of males, indicating that facultative parthenogenesis may be more common than previously thought and is not simply a response to a lack of males.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In aphids, a generation sexually conceived by a male and a female produces only females. The reason for this is the non-random segregation of the sex chromosomess X and O during spermatogenesis.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Facultative parthenogenesis is often used to describe cases of spontaneous parthenogenesis in normally sexual animals. For example, many cases of spontaneous parthenogenesis in sharks, some snakes, Komodo dragons and a variety of domesticated birds were widely attributed to facultative parthenogenesis. These cases are examples of spontaneous parthenogenesis. The occurrence of such asexually produced eggs in sexual animals can be explained by a meiotic error, leading to eggs produced via automixis.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Obligate parthenogenesis is the process in which organisms exclusively reproduce through asexual means. Many species have been shown to transition to obligate parthenogenesis over evolutionary time. Well documented transitions to obligate parthenogenesis have been found in numerous metazoan taxa, albeit through highly diverse mechanisms. These transitions often occur as a result of inbreeding or mutation within large populations. There are a number of documented species, specifically salamanders and geckos, that rely on obligate parthenogenesis as their major method of reproduction. As such, there are over 80 species of unisex reptiles (mostly lizards but including a single snake species), amphibians and fishes in nature for which males are no longer a part of the reproductive process. A female will produce an ovum with a full set (two sets of genes) provided solely by the mother. Thus, a male is not needed to provide sperm to fertilize the egg. This form of asexual reproduction is thought in some cases to be a serious threat to biodiversity for the subsequent lack of gene variation and potentially decreased fitness of the offspring.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Some invertebrate species that feature (partial) sexual reproduction in their native range are found to reproduce solely by parthenogenesis in areas to which they have been introduced. Relying solely on parthenogenetic reproduction has several advantages for an invasive species: it obviates the need for individuals in a very sparse initial population to search for mates; and an exclusively female sex distribution allows a population to multiply and invade more rapidly (potentially twice as fast). Examples include several aphid species and the willow sawfly, "Nematus oligospilus", which is sexual in its native Holarctic habitat but parthenogenetic where it has been introduced into the Southern Hemisphere.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenesis is seen to occur naturally in aphids, "Daphnia", rotifers, nematodes and some other invertebrates, as well as in many plants. Among vertebrates, strict parthenogenesis is only known to occur in lizards, snakes, birds and sharks, with fish, amphibians and reptiles exhibiting various forms of gynogenesis and hybridogenesis (an incomplete form of parthenogenesis). The first all-female (unisexual) reproduction in vertebrates was described in the fish "Poecilia formosa" in 1932. Since then at least 50 species of unisexual vertebrate have been described, including at least 20 fish, 25 lizards, a single snake species, frogs, and salamanders. Other usually sexual species may occasionally reproduce parthenogenetically; the Komodo dragon and hammerhead and blacktip sharks are recent additions to the known list of spontaneous parthenogenetic vertebrates. As with all types of asexual reproduction, there are both costs (low genetic diversity and therefore susceptibility to adverse mutations that might occur) and benefits (reproduction without the need for a male) associated with parthenogenesis.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenesis is distinct from artificial animal cloning, a process where the new organism is necessarily genetically identical to the cell donor. In cloning, the nucleus of a diploid cell from a donor organism is inserted into an enucleated egg cell and the cell is then stimulated to undergo continued mitosis, resulting in an organism that is genetically identical to the donor. Parthenogenesis is different, in that it originates from the genetic material contained within an egg cell and the new organism is not necessarily genetically identical to the parent.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenesis may be achieved through an artificial process as described below under the discussion of mammals.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Apomixis can apparently occur in "Phytophthora", an oomycete. Oospores from an experimental cross were germinated, and some of the progeny were genetically identical to one or other parent, implying that meiosis did not occur and the oospores developed by parthenogenesis.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: No males of "Epiperipatus imthurni" have been found, and specimens from Trinidad were shown to reproduce parthenogenetically. This species is the only known velvet worm to reproduce via parthenogenesis.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In bdelloid rotifers, females reproduce exclusively by parthenogenesis (obligate parthenogenesis), while in monogonont rotifers, females can alternate between sexual and asexual reproduction (cyclical parthenogenesis). At least in one normally cyclical parthenogenetic species obligate parthenogenesis can be inherited: a recessive allele leads to loss of sexual reproduction in homozygous offspring.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: At least two species in the genus "Dugesia", flatworms in the Turbellaria sub-division of the phylum Platyhelminthes, include polyploid individuals that reproduce by parthenogenesis. This type of parthenogenesis requires mating, but the sperm does not contribute to the genetics of the offspring (the parthenogenesis is pseudogamous, alternatively referred to as gynogenetic). A complex cycle of matings between diploid sexual and polyploid parthenogenetic individuals produces new parthenogenetic lines.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Several species of parthenogenetic gastropods have been studied, especially with respect to their status as invasive species. Such species include the New Zealand mud snail ("Potamopyrgus antipodarum"), the red-rimmed melania ("Melanoides tuberculata"), and the Quilted melania ("Tarebia granifera").


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenesis in insects can cover a wide range of mechanisms. The offspring produced by parthenogenesis may be of both sexes, only female (thelytoky, e.g. aphids and some hymenopterans) or only male (arrhenotoky, e.g. most hymenopterans). Both true parthenogenesis and pseudogamy ("gynogenesis" or "sperm-dependent parthenogenesis") are known to occur. The egg cells, depending on the species may be produced without meiosis (apomictically) or by one of the several automictic mechanisms.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: A related phenomenon, polyembryony is a process that produces multiple clonal offspring from a single egg cell. This is known in some hymenopteran parasitoids and in Strepsiptera.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In automictic species the offspring can be haploid or diploid. Diploids are produced by doubling or fusion of gametes after meiosis. Fusion is seen in the Phasmatodea, Hemiptera (Aleurodids and Coccidae), Diptera, and some Hymenoptera.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In addition to these forms is hermaphroditism, where both the eggs and sperm are produced by the same individual, but is not a type of parthenogenesis. This is seen in three species of "Icerya" scale insects.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parasitic bacteria like "Wolbachia" have been noted to induce automictic thelytoky in many insect species with haplodiploid systems. They also cause gamete duplication in unfertilized eggs causing them to develop into female offspring.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Among species with the haplo-diploid sex-determination system, such as hymenopterans (ants, bees and wasps) and thysanopterans (thrips), haploid males are produced from unfertilized eggs. Usually, eggs are laid only by the queen, but the unmated workers may also lay haploid, male eggs either regularly (e.g. stingless bees) or under special circumstances. An example of non-viable parthenogenesis is common among domesticated honey bees. The queen bee is the only fertile female in the hive; if she dies without the possibility of a viable replacement queen, it is not uncommon for the worker bees to lay eggs. This is a result of the lack of the queen's pheromones and the pheromones secreted by uncapped brood, which normally suppress ovarian development in workers. Worker bees are unable to mate, and the unfertilized eggs produce only drones (males), which can mate only with a queen. Thus, in a relatively short period, all the worker bees die off, and the new drones follow if they have not been able to mate before the collapse of the colony. This behavior is believed to have evolved to allow a doomed colony to produce drones which may mate with a virgin queen and thus preserve the colony's genetic progeny.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: A few ants and bees are capable of producing diploid female offspring parthenogenetically. These include a honey bee subspecies from South Africa, "Apis mellifera capensis", where workers are capable of producing diploid eggs parthenogenetically, and replacing the queen if she dies; other examples include some species of small carpenter bee, (genus "Ceratina"). Many parasitic wasps are known to be parthenogenetic, sometimes due to infections by "Wolbachia".


title: Parthenogenesis

text: The workers in five ant species and the queens in some ants are known to reproduce by parthenogenesis. In "Cataglyphis cursor", a European formicine ant, the queens and workers can produce new queens by parthenogenesis. The workers are produced sexually.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In Central and South American electric ants, "Wasmannia auropunctata", queens produce more queens through automictic parthenogenesis with central fusion. Sterile workers usually are produced from eggs fertilized by males. In some of the eggs fertilized by males, however, the fertilization can cause the female genetic material to be ablated from the zygote. In this way, males pass on only their genes to become fertile male offspring. This is the first recognized example of an animal species where both females and males can reproduce clonally resulting in a complete separation of male and female gene pools. As a consequence, the males will only have fathers and the queens only mothers, while the sterile workers are the only ones with both parents of both sexes.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: These ants get both the benefits of both asexual and sexual reproduction—the daughters who can reproduce (the queens) have all of the mother's genes, while the sterile workers whose physical strength and disease resistance are important are produced sexually.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Other examples of insect parthenogenesis can be found in gall-forming aphids (e.g., "Pemphigus betae"), where females reproduce parthenogenetically during the gall-forming phase of their life cycle and in grass thrips. In the grass thrips genus "Aptinothrips" there have been, despite the very limited number of species in the genus, several transitions to asexuality.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Crustacean reproduction varies both across and within species. The water flea "Daphnia pulex" alternates between sexual and parthenogenetic reproduction. Among the better-known large decapod crustaceans, some crayfish reproduce by parthenogenesis. "Marmorkrebs" are parthenogenetic crayfish that were discovered in the pet trade in the 1990s. Offspring are genetically identical to the parent, indicating it reproduces by apomixis, i.e. parthenogenesis in which the eggs did not undergo meiosis. Spinycheek crayfish ("Orconectes limosus") can reproduce both sexually and by parthenogenesis. The Louisiana red swamp crayfish ("Procambarus clarkii"), which normally reproduces sexually, has also been suggested to reproduce by parthenogenesis, although no individuals of this species have been reared this way in the lab. "Artemia parthenogenetica" is a species or series of populations of parthenogenetic brine shrimps.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: At least two species of spiders in the family Oonopidae (goblin spiders), "Heteroonops spinimanus" and "Triaeris stenaspis", are thought to be parthenogenetic, as no males have ever been collected. Parthenogenetic reproduction has been demonstrated in the laboratory for "T. stenaspis".


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenesis in sharks has been confirmed in at least three species, the bonnethead, the blacktip shark, and the zebra shark, and reported in others.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: A bonnethead, a type of small hammerhead shark, was found to have produced a pup, born live on December 14, 2001, at Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska, in a tank containing three female hammerheads, but no males. The pup was thought to have been conceived through parthenogenesis. The shark pup was apparently killed by a stingray within days of birth. The investigation of the birth was conducted by the research team from Queen's University Belfast, Southeastern University in Florida, and Henry Doorly Zoo itself, and it was concluded after DNA testing that the reproduction was parthenogenetic. The testing showed the female pup's DNA matched only one female who lived in the tank, and that no male DNA was present in the pup. The pup was not a twin or clone of her mother, but rather, contained only half of her mother's DNA ("automictic parthenogenesis"). This type of reproduction had been seen before in bony fish, but never in cartilaginous fish such as sharks, until this documentation.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In the same year, a female Atlantic blacktip shark in Virginia reproduced via parthenogenesis. On October 10, 2008, scientists confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark. The Journal of Fish Biology reported a study in which scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In 2002, two white-spotted bamboo sharks were born at the Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit. They hatched 15 weeks after being laid. The births baffled experts as the mother shared an aquarium with only one other shark, which was female. The female bamboo sharks had laid eggs in the past. This is not unexpected, as many animals will lay eggs even if there is not a male to fertilize them. Normally, the eggs are assumed to be inviable and are discarded. This batch of eggs was left undisturbed by the curator as he had heard about the previous birth in 2001 in Nebraska and wanted to observe whether they would hatch. Other possibilities had been considered for the birth of the Detroit bamboo sharks including thoughts that the sharks had been fertilized by a male and stored the sperm for a period of time, as well as the possibility that the Belle Isle bamboo shark is a hermaphrodite, harboring both male and female sex organs, and capable of fertilizing its own eggs, but that is not confirmed.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In 2008, a Hungarian aquarium had another case of parthenogenesis after its lone female shark produced a pup without ever having come into contact with a male shark.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: The repercussions of parthenogenesis in sharks, which fails to increase the genetic diversity of the offspring, is a matter of concern for shark experts, taking into consideration conservation management strategies for this species, particularly in areas where there may be a shortage of males due to fishing or environmental pressures. Although parthenogenesis may help females who cannot find mates, it does reduce genetic diversity.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In 2011, recurring shark parthenogenesis over several years was demonstrated in a captive zebra shark, a type of carpet shark. DNA genotyping demonstrated that individual zebra sharks can switch from sexual to parthenogenetic reproduction.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Most reptiles of the squamatan order (lizards and snakes) reproduce sexually, but parthenogenesis has been observed to occur naturally in certain species of whiptails, some geckos, rock lizards, Komodo dragons and snakes. Some of these like the mourning gecko "Lepidodactylus lugubris", Indo-Pacific house gecko "Hemidactylus garnotii", the hybrid whiptails "Cnemidophorus", Caucasian rock lizards "Darevskia", and the brahminy blindsnake, "Indotyphlops braminus" are unisexual and obligately parthenogenetic. Other reptiles, such as the Komodo dragon, other monitor lizards, and some species of boas, pythons, filesnakes, gartersnakes and rattlesnakes were previously considered as cases of facultative parthenogenesis, but may be cases of accidental parthenogenesis.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In 2012, facultative parthenogenesis was reported in wild vertebrates for the first time by US researchers amongst captured pregnant copperhead and cottonmouth female pit-vipers. The Komodo dragon, which normally reproduces sexually, has also been found able to reproduce asexually by parthenogenesis. A case has been documented of a Komodo dragon reproducing via sexual reproduction after a known parthenogenetic event, highlighting that these cases of parthenogenesis are reproductive accidents, rather than adaptive, facultative parthenogenesis.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Some reptile species use a ZW chromosome system, which produces either males (ZZ) or females (ZW). Until 2010, it was thought that the ZW chromosome system used by reptiles was incapable of producing viable WW offspring, but a (ZW) female boa constrictor was discovered to have produced viable female offspring with WW chromosomes.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenesis has been studied extensively in the New Mexico whiptail in the genus "Aspidoscelis" of which 15 species reproduce exclusively by parthenogenesis. These lizards live in the dry and sometimes harsh climate of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. All these asexual species appear to have arisen through the hybridization of two or three of the sexual species in the genus leading to polyploid individuals. The mechanism by which the mixing of chromosomes from two or three species can lead to parthenogenetic reproduction is unknown. Recently, a hybrid parthenogenetic whiptail lizard was bred in the laboratory from a cross between an asexual and a sexual whiptail. Because multiple hybridization events can occur, individual parthenogenetic whiptail species can consist of multiple independent asexual lineages. Within lineages, there is very little genetic diversity, but different lineages may have quite different genotypes.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: An interesting aspect to reproduction in these asexual lizards is that mating behaviors are still seen, although the populations are all female. One female plays the role played by the male in closely related species, and mounts the female that is about to lay eggs. This behaviour is due to the hormonal cycles of the females, which cause them to behave like males shortly after laying eggs, when levels of progesterone are high, and to take the female role in mating before laying eggs, when estrogen dominates. Lizards who act out the courtship ritual have greater fecundity than those kept in isolation, due to the increase in hormones that accompanies the mounting. So, although the populations lack males, they still require sexual behavioral stimuli for "maximum" reproductive success.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Some lizard parthenogens show a pattern of geographic parthenogenesis, occupying high mountain areas where their ancestral forms have an inferior competition ability. In Caucasian rock lizards of genus "Darevskia", which have six parthenogenetic forms of hybrid origin hybrid parthenogenetic form "D. "dahli"" has a broader niche than either of its bisexual ancestors and its expansion throughout the Central Lesser Caucasus caused decline of the ranges of both its maternal and paternal species.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenesis in birds is known mainly from studies of domesticated turkeys and chickens, although it has also been noted in the domestic pigeon. In most cases the egg fails to develop normally or completely to hatching. The first description of parthenogenetic development in a passerine was demonstrated in captive zebra finches, although the dividing cells exhibited irregular nuclei and the eggs did not hatch.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Parthenogenesis in turkeys appears to result from a conversion of haploid cells to diploid; most embryos produced in this way die early in development. Rarely, viable birds result from this process, and the rate at which this occurs in turkeys can be increased by selective breeding, however male turkeys produced from parthenogenesis exhibit smaller testes and reduced fertility.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In 2021, the San Diego Zoo reported that they had two unfertilized eggs from their California condor breeding program hatch. This is the first known example of parthenogenesis in this species, as well as one of the only known examples of parthenogenesis happening where males are still present.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: There are no known cases of naturally occurring mammalian parthenogenesis in the wild. Parthenogenetic progeny of mammals would have two X chromosomes, and would therefore be genetically female.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In April 2004, scientists at Tokyo University of Agriculture used parthenogenesis successfully to create a fatherless mouse. Using gene targeting, they were able to manipulate two imprinted loci H19/IGF2 and DLK1/MEG3 to produce bi-maternal mice at high frequency and subsequently show that fatherless mice have enhanced longevity.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Induced parthenogenesis in mice and monkeys often results in abnormal development. This is because mammals have imprinted genetic regions, where either the maternal or the paternal chromosome is inactivated in the offspring in order for development to proceed normally. A mammal created by parthenogenesis would have double doses of maternally imprinted genes and lack paternally imprinted genes, leading to developmental abnormalities. It has been suggested that defects in placental folding or interdigitation are one cause of swine parthenote abortive development. As a consequence, research on human parthenogenesis is focused on the production of embryonic stem cells for use in medical treatment, not as a reproductive strategy.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: However, in 2022, researchers reported that they have achieved parthenogenesis in mice for viable offspring born from unfertilized eggs, addressing the problems of genomic imprinting by "targeted DNA methylation rewriting of seven imprinting control regions".


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Use of an electrical or chemical stimulus can produce the beginning of the process of parthenogenesis in the asexual development of viable offspring.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: During oocyte development, high metaphase promoting factor (MPF) activity causes mammalian oocytes to arrest at the metaphase II stage until fertilization by a sperm. The fertilization event causes intracellular calcium oscillations, and targeted degradation of cyclin B, a regulatory subunit of MPF, thus permitting the MII-arrested oocyte to proceed through meiosis.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: To initiate parthenogenesis of swine oocytes, various methods exist to induce an artificial activation that mimics sperm entry, such as calcium ionophore treatment, microinjection of calcium ions, or electrical stimulation. Treatment with cycloheximide, a non-specific protein synthesis inhibitor, enhances parthenote development in swine presumably by continual inhibition of MPF/cyclin B. As meiosis proceeds, extrusion of the second polar is blocked by exposure to cytochalasin B. This treatment results in a diploid (2 maternal genomes) parthenote Parthenotes can be surgically transferred to a recipient oviduct for further development, but will succumb to developmental failure after ≈30 days of gestation. The swine parthenote placentae often appears hypo-vascular: see free image (Figure 1) in linked reference.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Reports of human parthenogenesis have famously existed since ancient times, featuring prominently in Christianity and various other religions. More recently, Helen Spurway, a geneticist specializing in the reproductive biology of the guppy ("Lebistes reticulatus"), claimed in 1955 that parthenogenesis, which occurs in the guppy in nature, may also occur (though very rarely) in the human species, leading to so-called “virgin births”. This created some sensation among her colleagues and the lay public alike. Sometimes an embryo may begin to divide without fertilisation, but it cannot fully develop on its own; so while it may create some skin and nerve cells, it cannot create others (such as skeletal muscle) and becomes a type of benign tumor called an ovarian teratoma. Spontaneous ovarian activation is not rare and has been known about since the 19th century. Some teratomas can even become primitive fetuses (fetiform teratoma) with imperfect heads, limbs and other structures, but are non-viable.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: In 1995, there was a reported case of partial human parthenogenesis; a boy was found to have some of his cells (such as white blood cells) to be lacking in any genetic content from his father. Scientists believe that an unfertilised egg began to self-divide but then had some (but not all) of its cells fertilised by a sperm cell; this must have happened early in development, as self-activated eggs quickly lose their ability to be fertilised. The unfertilised cells eventually duplicated their DNA, boosting their chromosomes to 46. When the unfertilised cells hit a developmental block, the fertilised cells took over and developed that tissue. The boy had asymmetrical facial features and learning difficulties but was otherwise healthy. This would make him a parthenogenetic chimera (a child with two cell lineages in his body). While over a dozen similar cases have been reported since then (usually discovered after the patient demonstrated clinical abnormalities), there have been no scientifically confirmed reports of a non-chimeric, clinically healthy human parthenote (i.e. produced from a single, parthenogenetic-activated oocyte).


title: Parthenogenesis

text: On June 26, 2007, the International Stem Cell Corporation (ISCC), a California-based stem cell research company, announced that their lead scientist, Dr. Elena Revazova, and her research team were the first to intentionally create human stem cells from unfertilized human eggs using parthenogenesis. The process may offer a way for creating stem cells that are genetically matched to a particular female for the treatment of degenerative diseases that might affect her. In December 2007, Dr. Revazova and ISCC published an article illustrating a breakthrough in the use of parthenogenesis to produce human stem cells that are homozygous in the HLA region of DNA. These stem cells are called HLA homozygous parthenogenetic human stem cells (hpSC-Hhom) and have unique characteristics that would allow derivatives of these cells to be implanted into millions of people without immune rejection. With proper selection of oocyte donors according to HLA haplotype, it is possible to generate a bank of cell lines whose tissue derivatives, collectively, could be MHC-matched with a significant number of individuals within the human population.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: On August 2, 2007, after an independent investigation, it was revealed that discredited South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-Suk unknowingly produced the first human embryos resulting from parthenogenesis. Initially, Hwang claimed he and his team had extracted stem cells from cloned human embryos, a result later found to be fabricated. Further examination of the chromosomes of these cells show indicators of parthenogenesis in those extracted stem cells, similar to those found in the mice created by Tokyo scientists in 2004. Although Hwang deceived the world about being the first to create artificially cloned human embryos, he contributed a major breakthrough to stem cell research by creating human embryos using parthenogenesis. The truth was discovered in 2007, long after the embryos were created by him and his team in February 2004. This made Hwang the first, unknowingly, to successfully perform the process of parthenogenesis to create a human embryo and, ultimately, a human parthenogenetic stem cell line.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: A US study conducted between 1995 and 2009 found that out of 7,870 young women who participated, 45 (0.5%) reported that they had had a virgin pregnancy and resulting birth. The alleged virgin mothers were found to be relatively unlikely to know how to use a condom, and 67.8% said they would endorse condom use. Additionally, they were relatively likely to have pledged chastity and to have had less communication with their parents about sex and birth control.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: A form of asexual reproduction related to parthenogenesis is gynogenesis. Here, offspring are produced by the same mechanism as in parthenogenesis, but with the requirement that the egg merely be stimulated by the "presence" of sperm in order to develop. However, the sperm cell does not contribute any genetic material to the offspring. Since gynogenetic species are all female, activation of their eggs requires mating with males of a closely related species for the needed stimulus. Some salamanders of the genus "Ambystoma" are gynogenetic and appear to have been so for over a million years. It is believed that the success of those salamanders may be due to rare fertilization of eggs by males, introducing new material to the gene pool, which may result from perhaps only one mating out of a million. In addition, the amazon molly is known to reproduce by gynogenesis.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: Hybridogenesis is a mode of reproduction of hybrids. Hybridogenetic hybrids (for example AB genome), usually females, during gametogenesis exclude one of parental genomes (A) and produce gametes with unrecombined genome of second parental species (B), instead of containing mixed recombined parental genomes. First genome (A) is restored by fertilization of these gametes with gametes from the first species (AA, sexual host, usually male).


title: Parthenogenesis

text: So hybridogenesis is not completely asexual, but instead hemiclonal: half of genome is passed to the next generation clonally, unrecombined, intact (B), other half sexually, recombined (A).


title: Parthenogenesis

text: This process continues, so that each generation is half (or hemi-) clonal on the mother's side and has half new genetic material from the father's side.


title: Parthenogenesis

text: This form of reproduction is seen in some live-bearing fish of the genus "Poeciliopsis" as well as in some of the "Pelophylax" spp. ("green frogs" or "waterfrogs"):


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: White Noise is a 2022 absurdist comedy-drama film written for the screen and directed by Noah Baumbach, adapted from the 1985 novel of the same name by Don DeLillo. It is Baumbach's first directed feature not to be based on an original story of his own. The film stars Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, and Don Cheadle. Set in the 1980s, the story sees the life of a family following an air contamination accident where they reside.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: "White Noise" had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2022, and was released in select cinemas on November 25, 2022, before its streaming release on December 30, 2022, by Netflix. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with particular praise for Driver's and Gerwig's performances, and Baumbach's screenplay and direction.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: Set in 1984, Jack Gladney, is a professor of "Hitler studies" (a field he founded) at the College-on-the-Hill. He is revealed to be a fraudulent professor, in that he knows essentially no German and no one is supposed to know that. Jack is married to Babette, his fourth wife. Together, they raise a blended family with four children; Heinrich and Steffie from two of Jack's previous marriages, Denise from Babette's previous marriage, and Wilder, a child they conceived together. Denise spies on Babette, finding her secret prescription stash of Dylar, a mysterious drug not in the usual records. Jack experiences a dream of a mysterious man trying to kill him, alluding to an earlier conversation with Babette about their fear of death. Jack's colleague, Murray Siskind, a professor of American culture, wishes to develop a similar niche field, "Elvis studies", and convinces Jack to help him. Both briefly compete with each other as competition between their courses arise.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: Their life is disrupted, however, when a cataclysmic train accident casts a cloud of chemical waste over the town. This "Airborne Toxic Event" forces a massive evacuation, which leads to a major traffic jam on the highway. Jack drives to a gas station to refill his car, where he is inadvertently exposed to the cloud. The family and numerous others are forced into quarantine at a summer camp. Murray supplies Jack with a small palm-sized pistol, to protect himself against the more dangerous survivalists in the camp. One day, chaos ensues when families desperately try to escape the camp. The Gladneys are almost able to make it out, but end up with their car floating in the river. After nine days, the family is able to leave the camp. However, since Jack was briefly exposed to the chemical waste, his fear of death becomes exacerbated.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: Later, everything has returned back to normal except for Babette, who has become pale and distant from Jack. Soon afterward, Jack begins having hallucinations of a mysterious man following him around. Denise shares her concerns regarding Dylar, and Gladney confronts Babette. She admits to having joined a shadowy clinical trial for a drug to treat death anxieties, and that she was accepted in exchange for sex with "Mr. Gray". Intrigued by the idea, Jack asks Denise for the Dylar bottle, but she reveals she threw them away earlier. While digging through the garbage, Jack finds a newspaper ad for Dylar, prompting him to retrieve his pistol and get revenge on Mr. Gray. Jack tracks him down at a hotel, where he discovers that Mr. Gray was the man in his hallucinations. Jack shoots him and puts the gun in his hand so as to make it look like suicide. Babette unexpectedly shows up and sees a still-alive Mr. Gray, who manages to shoot them both. Jack drives all three to a hospital run by German atheist nuns, where they heal and reconcile with each other.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: The movie ends with the Gladneys shopping at an A&P supermarket, where the family participates in a music video-like dance.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: In the novel, Gladney steals his neighbor’s car to travel to the Mink’s motel. In the film, he borrows Murray Siskind’s.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: Gladney does not discover Mink’s whereabouts through a phone call as shown in the film. In the novel, Gladney drives aimlessly in search until he stumbles upon the Mink’s motel.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: An extended car chase scene was devised for the purposes of the film and does not appear in the book.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: On July 28, 2004, Barry Sonnenfeld was set to direct the film adaptation of "White Noise" from a script by Stephen Schiff. In 2016, Uri Singer acquired the rights to the book and pushed the project into development. On October 17, 2016, Michael Almereyda was set to write and direct the film adaptation. On January 13, 2021, it was revealed that Noah Baumbach would be adapting and directing the film for Netflix producing alongside David Heyman and Uri Singer.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: On December 22, 2020, Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig were cast in the film. In April 2021, Raffey Cassidy, May Nivola and Sam Nivola joined the cast of the film. In June 2021, Jodie Turner-Smith entered negotiations to join the cast. She would confirm her involvement the next month, as well as revealing Don Cheadle would star as well. In August 2021, it was announced André Benjamin had joined the cast of the film.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: Principal photography began in June 2021, under the working title "Wheat Germ". Filming took place in Ohio, including the University of Akron for approximately six weeks, Ashtabula Pine Lake Raceway and Trail Riding, Cleveland Heights, The College of Wooster, Wellington, Oberlin, Dorset, Andrews Osborne Academy in Willoughby, Kent State University, and at Central Catholic High School in Perry Township, near Salem.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: Filming took place in downtown Cleveland on November 4, 2021, with scenes shot on the Hope Memorial Bridge.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: The film score is composed by Danny Elfman, which was released into a soundtrack album on November 18, 2022. LCD Soundsystem reunited to record their first new music in over five years for the film. Titled "New Body Rhumba", the song was released as a single on September 30.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: "White Noise" had its world premiere as the opening film of the 79th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2022, and also served as the opening film for the 2022 New York Film Festival on September 30. It also screened at the 31st Philadelphia Film Festival in October 2022. The film was theatrically released in the United States by Netflix on November 25, 2022, before its streaming release on December 30.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, "White Noise" holds a rating of 64% based on 160 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The site's critics consensus reads: ""White Noise" may occasionally struggle with its allegedly unfilmable source material, but Noah Baumbach succeeds in finding the humorous heart of its surprisingly timely story." On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film has a score of 67 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.


title: White Noise (2022 film)

text: Reviewing the film following its Venice Film Festival premiere, Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave the film five out of five stars, writing, "Baumbach has landed a sizeable white whale in his tremendously elegant and assured adaptation." "The Hollywood Reporter"’s David Rooney described it as "Equal parts clear signal and wearying static", praising the cast performances, humor, and score, but finding the screenplay inconsistent. David Ehrlich of "IndieWire" called the adaptation "equal parts inspired and exasperating ".


title: Statue of Zeus at Olympia

text: The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who rules as king of the gods of Mount Olympus.


title: Statue of Zeus at Olympia

text: The statue was a chryselephantine sculpture of ivory plates and gold panels on a wooden framework. Zeus sat on a painted cedarwood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold, and precious stones. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.


title: Statue of Zeus at Olympia

text: The statue was lost and destroyed before the end of the 5th century AD, with conflicting accounts of the date and circumstances. Details of its form are known only from ancient Greek descriptions and representations on coins.


title: Statue of Zeus at Olympia

text: The statue of Zeus was commissioned by the Eleans, custodians of the Olympic Games, in the latter half of the fifth century BC for their newly constructed Temple of Zeus. Seeking to outdo their Athenian rivals, the Eleans employed sculptor Phidias, who had previously made the massive statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon.


title: Statue of Zeus at Olympia

text: The statue occupied half the width of the aisle of the temple built to house it. The geographer Strabo noted early in the 1st century BC that the statue gave "the impression that if Zeus arose and stood erect he would unroof the temple." The "Zeus" was a chryselephantine sculpture, made with ivory and gold panels on a wooden substructure. No copy in marble or bronze has survived, though there are recognizable but only approximate versions on coins of nearby Elis and on Roman coins and engraved gems.