An all - female species
of whiptail lizards presents a unique opportunity to test hypotheses regarding the nature and the evolution of sexual behavior
«In case
of the whiptail lizard in the New Mexican desert which consists only of females, a type of pseudo-copulation still takes place before eggs start developing, suggesting evolution places certain checks on completely eliminating sex and sexual behavior,» said Prof. Alexander Mikheyev, head of OIST's Ecology and Evolution Unit, the paper's co-author.
Not exact matches
Asexual
whiptails have a special trick for making spermless reproduction work: The egg cells in other animals first double their choromosomes once and then divide twice, leaving them as haploid cells, with half the normal number
of genetic material.
Pairs
of female
whiptails sometimes engage in mock sex, which led to the nickname «lesbian lizards» and seems to encourage the production
of egg cells.
But the
whiptails» egg cells first double their chromosomes twice and then divide twice, leaving them with the normal number
of chromosomes and rendering a sperm cell unnecessary.
Living in the deserts
of the U.S. Southwest and parts
of northern Mexico, the New Mexico
whiptail is an all - female species
of lizard.
The creatures first arose as hybrids between two closely related species
of sexually reproducing lizards: the little striped
whiptail (A. inornata) and the tiger
whiptail (A. tigris).
Henceforth and forever all
whiptails will honor the memory
of Whiptail the Tenth and Queen Cnemetail.
Since then, Crews has used the
whiptail lizard to study the evolution
of behavior and the neurobiology
of gender differences.
Hikers can expect to see a wide variety
of fascinating wildlife including the Aruban burrowing owl (Shoco), Aruban rattlesnake, Aruban
whiptail lizard, and the Aruban parakeet (Prikichi).
Isla San Cosme has three species
of reptiles: Aspidoscelis tigris (tiger
whiptail), Sauromalus ater (common chuckwalla), and Urosaurus nigricaudus (black - tailed brush lizard).
After two hours
of searching the cactus, aloe, and prickly acacia — sometimes crawling to get a better look at tree trunks and leaf litter — I counted exactly six
whiptail lizards, three toads, two geckoes, and one santanero.
In the lizard world, vulnerable creatures that they are, there's the flying dragon, thorny devil,
whiptail, Jaragua sphaero, chuckwalla, and so on... all
of them possess quite novel approaches to survival, such as the side - flap that gives the flying dragon its namesake, or the thorny devil with a mouth so wide it can consume thousands
of ants in a single sitting.