GA4

Sunday, February 03, 2008

More Komodo Dragon Parthenogenesis?

Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas is celebrating the first hatchling from a clutch of seventeen Komodo Dragon eggs laid by female Gaia back in mid-May 2007. ABC affiliate KAKE.com has the story.

The only other Komodo Dragon in the zoo enclosure is ALSO female, so it looks very much like we have another case of parthenogenesis on our hands, as we did last year at Chester Zoo.
The hatchling entered the world on January 31, measuring almost 17-inches-long from nose to tail and weighing 104 grams.
[...]
Sedgwick County Zoo followed the Species Survival Plan (SSP) recommendation to incubate and hatch two eggs. The SSP wanted to further document that Komodo dragons are capable of parthenogenesis. The second egg at Sedgwick County Zoo is in the final stages of hatching.

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