Wednesday 24 January 2007

Gender-bending Dragon!

A komodo dragon in Chester Zoo has given birth to five baby dragons! Not much odd about that, I hear you say, after all, that is what komodo dragons usually give birth to.

Well, Flora, the lizard in question, has never mated, or even mixed with a male lizard. Flora fertilised the eggs herself, without any male help, in a process called parthenogenesis or "virgin birth". Like Jesus!

A curator at the zoo hilariously quipped "When the first of the babies hatched, we didn't know whether to make her a cup of tea or pass her the cigars..." Funny.

And apparently the komodo dragon population is 75% male.

More about how the lizard did it here on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis or read the whole article here on Yahoo!News, but I wouldn't bother, it's pretty short.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/24012007/80-132/komodo-dragon-proud-mum-dad-five.html

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