}

Komodo puppies need father

2007/02/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

Komodo puppies without father
01/02/2007 | Elhuyar
(Photo: I. Stephen)

Komodo dragons unfertilised by the male were born in two zoos in the UK, Chester and London. And it is precisely the result of captivity, since other species also use this form of fertilization in conditions of isolation.

There has been a reproduction called parthenogenesis and the dragon puppies are not clones of the mother. Since there has been no fertilization, the genetic material of the egg has not been added that of the sperm, but the polar corpuscle attached to the egg. Therefore all puppies are males. In fact, unlike the man, the female dragon has two different sex chromosomes (ZW) and the male two equal (ZZ). Well, since each of the eggs (and its polar corpuscle) carries one of the two chromosomes (Z or W), the only viable combination is that of the sexual chromosome ZZ, the male.

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