Lizard Nativity

[koosie]

As a fully paid-up dragon, my cold heart was certainly warmed by this news story from nearby Chester zoo:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6196225.stm

Though I did feel a bit sorry for the virgin mother Flora. Personally I think she's really pretty but I was told in no uncertain terms that I'm the wrong type of dragon.

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by koosie

As a fully paid-up dragon, my cold heart was certainly warmed by this news story from nearby Chester zoo:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6196225.stm

Though I did feel a bit sorry for the virgin mother Flora. Personally I think she's really pretty but I was told in no uncertain terms that I'm the wrong type of dragon.

I read that this morning! She is a Komodo Dragon, a rare species of Monitor, the largest lizard in the world. This is great news because in this species, males outnumber females 10 to 1, so scientists have been worried that the species is doomed to extinction due to so few females, and competition among males making it more difficult for a female to actually breed.

This phenomenon, called pathenogenisis, is not unknown among lizards, though. Several species of smaller lizards, including the Desert Whiptail of the American Southwest, reproduce this way. There are no males even found in those species; all of them are female! It's basically self-cloning; the eggs are exact replicas of the parent, and all offspring are female as a result.

pitbulllady

[Carlaz]

Originally Posted by koosie

As a fully paid-up dragon, my cold heart was certainly warmed by this news story from nearby Chester zoo:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6196225.stm

Though I did feel a bit sorry for the virgin mother Flora. Personally I think she's really pretty but I was told in no uncertain terms that I'm the wrong type of dragon.

I also read this story online this morning. Great minds think alike!

[Partymember]

i saw that, very cool.

[koosie]

Originally Posted by pitbulllady

I
This phenomenon, called pathenogenisis, is not unknown among lizards, though. Several species of smaller lizards, including the Desert Whiptail of the American Southwest, reproduce this way. There are no males even found in those species; all of them are female! It's basically self-cloning; the eggs are exact replicas of the parent, and all offspring are female as a result.

pitbulllady

Good grief is that true? When did that happen to Desert Whiptail? Clones of clones of clones in plants become less resistant to environmentsal stresses which is why we're losing the Cavendish Banana. I suppose that must play out over much longer time-scales in animals or are they not clones in the same sense?

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by koosie

Good grief is that true? When did that happen to Desert Whiptail? Clones of clones of clones in plants become less resistant to environmentsal stresses which is why we're losing the Cavendish Banana. I suppose that must play out over much longer time-scales in animals or are they not clones in the same sense?

Yes, the lizards are indeed true clones, genetic replicas of the parent. Since males do not exist, and females have no way to transfer their genes to another female, the only source of the genes of each offspring is from the one parent. What is interesting, though, is that even though males do not exist, females still require stimulation in order ovulate, so another female will go through the male's motions to cause the submissive female to produce eggs.

pitbulllady

[koosie]

That's kind of cute. Do they take it in turns? You know I possibly don't need to know. As long as they're thriving lizards, that's the main thing.
Is it possible to hybridise lizards as we do plants? Find another lizard from the same genus and produce a viable male pseudo-Desert Whiptail? Really muck things up for their reptilian feminist utopia.

I was talking to a venerable gentleman who recounted to me that there's footage of a bbc wildlife crew sprinting away in sheer panic when a Komodo Dragon got too close. Can you imagine what was going through their minds? Can't imagine much would have the ability to alarm you after surviving that. Either that or you'd be cowering under the bed imagining whopping great lizards round any corner. Anyway this gent also said that 96% of the gene pool of this planet was lost in the mass extinction of the Permian, long before the dinosaurs and at the end of the era that made all that fuel we're chugging.