Interesting that the wild population is described as about 4000, with about 1000 of those being females. I am also going to guess that the offspring of parthenogenesis are all female. So maybe it's an adaptation that will allow the female population to catch up, or maybe it only happens in captivity and won't have a chance to happen in the wild because the males are extremely available?
I am also going to guess that the offspring of parthenogenesis are all female.
I read that the offspring of parthenogenesis are all male. The theory being that a lone female can restart (or spread) the population parthenogenetically and then go back to sexual reproduction.
Thanks for the comment! You are correct! And I learned something new.
I was going on the assumption that XX=female and XY=male for all types of sexual creatures, but there's apparently a different scheme for these reptiles and many others: WZ=female, ZZ=male. I think that's way cool.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-12-22 08:10 am (UTC)Anyway, extremely interesting.
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Date: 2006-12-22 05:12 pm (UTC)I read that the offspring of parthenogenesis are all male. The theory being that a lone female can restart (or spread) the population parthenogenetically and then go back to sexual reproduction.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-22 07:04 pm (UTC)I was going on the assumption that XX=female and XY=male for all types of sexual creatures, but there's apparently a different scheme for these reptiles and many others: WZ=female, ZZ=male. I think that's way cool.