We shall have a Virgin Birth for Xmas, more or less. But her name ain’t Mary, & the long scaley tail may be off-putting to some.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/20/uk.komodo.reut/index.html
LONDON, England (Reuters) – Flora, a pregnant Komodo dragon living in a British zoo, is expecting eight babies in what scientists said on Wednesday could be a Christmas virgin birth.
Flora has never mated, or even mixed, with a male dragon, and fertilized all the eggs herself, a process culminating in parthenogenesis, or virgin birth. Other lizards do this, but scientists only recently found that Komodo dragons do too.
“Nobody in their wildest dreams expected this. But you have a female dragon on her own. She produces a clutch of eggs and those eggs turn out to be fertile. It is nature finding a way,” Kevin Buley of Chester Zoo in England said in an interview.
He said the incubating eggs could hatch around Christmas.
Parthenogenesis has occurred in other lizard species, but Buley and his team said this was the first time it has been shown in Komodo dragons – the world’s largest lizards.
Hmmm…Jurassic Park ain’t as off-base as some SDMB Members have posited.
More articles
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/20/tech/main2284818.shtml
I’m dreamin’ of a parthenogenetic Christmas, just like the ones I used to kno-o-o-o-w-w-w…
Actually, I look up parthenogenesis in Wikipedia, and what it says at the top is sort of funny. “Parthenogensis” is not really in the Christian vocabulary, is it?
Actually, I look up parthenogenesis in Wikipedia, and what it says at the top is sort of funny. “Parthenogensis” is not really in the Christian vocabulary, is it?
From the wikipedia article:
An interesting aspect to reproduction in these asexual lizards is that mating behaviors are still seen even though the populations are entirely female. One female plays the role formerly played by the male and mounts the female that is about to produce eggs. This behavior is due to the hormonal cycles of the animals, which cause them to mate 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 that 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 stimuli for maximum reproductive success.
So now we have “lesbian” lizards who have biological children. This is better than male penguins who adopt eggs at the zoo! The critics of Mary Cheney should do a little research into the wonderful diversity of nature.