Virgins and dragons

by Diane Duane

But not the way you’re thinking.

A clutch of four Komodo dragons that hatched at London Zoo this year were all the result of virgin births, according to research that could help scientific efforts to protect the world’s largest lizards.

Genetic tests conducted at the University of Liverpool have proved that all four born to a female called Sungai were conceived by parthenogenesis, a form of asexual reproduction that is known to take place in lizards but never documented in this species before.

Good time of year for it, too. 

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1 comment

P J Evans December 23, 2006 - 1:43 am

I’m tempted to suggest the names my grandmother wanted to use on the four baby turtles that hatched one year: Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Cinderella.

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