Cynthia Dick, age 10, of Covington, Oklahoma, for her question:

Is it true that some animals have no mothers and fathers?

In the animal world there are many types of family life. Some are not what you might expect. But all living creatures come from a generation of animals just like themselves. It is true that some of them do not spring from mothers and fathers. Most of these creatures are tiny single celled animals, such as the amoeba. This little blob of jelly does everything, absolutely everything for himself. He eats and grows and multiplies all by himself. He multiplies by dividing himself into a pair of identical twins. This requires no mother or father    and no parent generation is left behind to grow old and die.

Other smallish creatures have even more surprising family lives. One of these is our gentle little earthworm. He or she is both a mother and a father. Every worm has a mother and a father. But his mother is the father of another batch of wormlings  ¬and their mother is his father. Family life in the animal world is full of amazing surprises.