Racoon Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 This was a pretty cool article. Amazing! "Parthenogenesis is a process in which eggs become embryos without male fertilization. It has been seen in about 70 species, including snakes and lizards. Scientists are unsure whether female Komodo dragons have always had this latent ability to reproduce or if this is a new evolutionary development." Can anyone think of cases and species with this ability? or any theories on how this evolved? Virgin dragon to give birth in holiday season - Science - MSNBC.com CHESTER, England - As Christmas approaches, a virgin mother is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her offspring. She’s Flora, the Komodo dragon. In an evolutionary twist, Flora has managed to become pregnant all on her own without any male help. It would seem the timing is auspicious: The seven baby Komodo dragons are due this festive season. “We were blown away when we realized what she’d done,” said Kevin Buley, a reptile expert at Flora’s home at the Chester Zoo in this town in northern England. “But we certainly won’t be naming any of the hatchlings Jesus.” Other reptile species reproduce asexually in a process known as parthenogenesis. But Flora’s virginal conception, and that of another Komodo dragon earlier this year at the London Zoo, are the first time it has been documented in a Komodo dragon. The reptiles, renowned for their intelligence, are native to Indonesia. They are the world’s largest lizards and have no natural predators — making them on par with sharks and lions at the pinnacle of the animal kingdom........ The discovery that Komodo dragons can reproduce asexually also has major implications for how they will be bred in captivity in the future. Experts are also keen to find out how prevalent virgin births are in the wild. “It’s baffling why a species starts doing this,” said Kevin de Queiroz, a research zoologist at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, who was not involved with the paper. “It would be helpful to know how often this happens and what the mechanism is that allows them do that.” Ganoderma 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobo Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 While there are a number of reptiles that do have this ability, I have never seen it documented in the varanids. Without a bit more detail in the animals history it would be hard to offer any real ideas, aside from conjecture. Possibly the ability to retain sperm from a male until a suitable time for raising young (seen in a number of organisms through out the animal kingdom as well). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallenrm Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 That's indeed a very cool information! Thanks Racoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LJP07 Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 Maybe a possibility to how it occurs is that previously sperm from a previous sexual meeting remained in the egg area and managed to fuse even if there was only 200 cells out of the normal 40 million. I understand that sperm cells do not last long inside the female reproductive systems. The whole idea of parthenogenesis seems a little farfetched and there must be an understanable cause for it, yet to be discovered. Even something like mine or a variation from it might occur in some species of animal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted December 22, 2006 Report Share Posted December 22, 2006 According to the story from BBC news, this particular Komodo dragon has had no contact with males. Flora, who has never been kept with a male Komodo dragon, produced 11 eggs earlier this year. Three died off, providing the material needed for genetic tests. These revealed the offspring were not exact genetic copies (clones) of their mother, but their genetic make-up was derived just from her. BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Virgin births' for giant lizards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobo Posted December 22, 2006 Report Share Posted December 22, 2006 Reptile sexing can be a bit tricky, varanids are not too dificult (males have hemi-penes that can be manually exposed), but this does not always make a large monitor very happy. Perhaps a mis-sexed partner had been in co-habitation. Or perhaps we have a new entity viing to replace the Mary for imaculate conception..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LJP07 Posted December 22, 2006 Report Share Posted December 22, 2006 According to the story from BBC news, this particular Komodo dragon has had no contact with males. BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Virgin births' for giant lizards Based on this, I've come up with another hypothesis. The female could have glands that produce the sperm, hence the two fuse and lizards result. This may seem extreme but recently an animal was found to have this condition with part of the other system to develop inside it. So there may be a possibility. Not sperm development but maybe some chemical that can trigger ova development. Racoon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmark Posted December 23, 2006 Report Share Posted December 23, 2006 hermaphroditism where there are both make and female reproductive organs that can self-fertilise are common among invertebrate, gastropod snails being a good example. it is not often found in vertebrates, although some species of fish can change from male to female or the reverse when circumstances change i.e. wrasse and clownfish as examples. There are a few fish that are hermaphrodites, but reptiles I am not. I know of no hermaphroditic reptile species although as has been pointed out parthenogenetic lizards are reasonably common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallenrm Posted December 23, 2006 Report Share Posted December 23, 2006 I would concur with rmark, somehow the earlier posters were riddled with the faith that no reproduction can take place in a vertibrate, unless an egg is fertilized by a sperm. It is taken almost as a divine law, which it is not. As a scientist I would wait for further scientific investigations, that find out whether it is a rare of rarest cases, or it happens more often, but is not commonly known, before jumping my guns :hihi: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LJP07 Posted December 23, 2006 Report Share Posted December 23, 2006 I have to come to the conclusion that the following occurred for the Komodo Dragon. We all know that Parthenogenesis is the fertilization without the sperm so my theory above in previous posts must be wrong but this is an alternative. The Komodo Dragon can reproduce sexually and Asexually as has been observed, the male was not in presence at any time during this period. The female dragons sex cells normally undergo Meiosis to produce 4 Haploid Sex Cells. One of these normally becomes the egg and the others degenerate and become reabsorbed by it's body. However the difference for it's asexual reproduction it that one of the Haploid Cells was used as a " sperm " so to speak and fertilized the original egg. How to answer the question then : The young weren't clones then?Well, during the mingling where the 4 haploid cells are produced, this creates a variety as we know in genetics. Each gene has two alleles, alleles are alternate forms of the same gene. So one of the cells could have different genes to that one of the other haploid cell. The two mingle and shuffle genes so it's very unlikely that the young would be clones at all for the Komodo Dragon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racoon Posted January 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2007 Parthenogenesis occured successfully. :cheer: :) A British zoo announced Wednesday the virgin birth of five Komodo dragons, giving scientists new hope for the captive breeding of the endangered species. In an evolutionary twist, the newborns’ eight-year-old mother Flora shocked staff at Chester Zoo in northern England when she became pregnant without ever having a male partner or even being exposed to the opposite sex. “Flora is oblivious to the excitement she has caused but we are delighted to say she is now a mum and dad,” said a delighted Kevin Buley, the zoo’s curator of lower vertebrates and invertebrates. Virgin Komodo dragon gives birth - Science - MSNBC.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ganoderma Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 Is the mother/father wild caught or captive bred? this is a very interesting event! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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