AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Dragon of comodo9/1/2023 ![]() ![]() Flora's infant dragons will not be her clones, however, because there is genetic shuffling going on during the egg production stage, Buley said.įor instance, not all copies of genes are identical and each gene has an alternate form. The one-parent event resulted in offspring containing the same genetic material as their mother. For Flora, one of the extra cells acted like a surrogate sperm and fertilized the egg cell, explained Buley. In females, meiosis produces four egg-progenitor cells, one of which becomes the egg while the other three typically get reabsorbed by the female's body. ![]() "This paternity test confirmed that all the genetic material in the eggs had come from Flora and that she was indeed both the mother and the father of the developing eggs," Buley told LiveScience.īoth males and females carry out meiosis in which cells divide to form the respective sex cells, sperm or egg. The zoo staff worked with Phillip Watts of Liverpool University to carry out genetic analysis of the collapsed eggs. Three of the developing eggs collapsed during incubation, providing embryonic material for testing this theory. That's because Flora had never come into contact with a male dragon while at the zoo. ![]() The zookeepers knew Flora had played both mom and pop as soon as they confirmed her eggs were fertile. In May of this year, Flora laid 25 eggs, of which 11 were viable. At most zoos, females live alone and are kept separate from other dragons. The Komodo dragon, turns out, can do both: they can reproduce sexually or asexually depending on their environmental conditions. The type of asexual reproduction in whiptail lizards generates all-female offspring. In some whiptail lizards, males have become somewhat of an accessory, and all individuals are female. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |