Rejoice! Another Christmas miracle: Virgin Komodo dragon is expecting!

[sinkingfeeling]

Will there be a new religion formed?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/20/uk.komodo.reut/index.html

<snip>LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Flora, a pregnant Komodo dragon living in a British zoo, is expecting eight babies in what scientists said on Wednesday could be a Christmas virgin birth.

Flora has never mated, or even mixed, with a male dragon, and fertilized all the eggs herself, a process culminating in parthenogenesis, or virgin birth. Other lizards do this, but scientists only recently found that Komodo dragons do too.

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Are they sure she never mated?

As I recall, there are a number of animals that can store sperm for long periods of time and conceive whenever it is advantageous to do so, even if it is months or years latter. I believe a number of reptile species have this ability.

[brentblack]

2. Yes

She has never been in the company of a male. She has lived her entire life in a caged environment with her sister, Nessie.

[DixieBlue]

3. Maybe Nessie's keeping a secret then?

"One day soon I'm gonna tell the moon about the crying game...."

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Parthenogenesis is a perfectly logical explanation.

There's an entire species of lizard in the American Southwest that repopulates this way. There are only females, each the clone of one lizard that started reproducing via parthenogenesis many thousands of generations ago, the rest of the species went extinct.

[Virginia Dare]

8. "Nessie", huh?

Do they have a cousin in Scotland?

:tinfoilhat:

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. Interesting. Thanks! n/t

[Philosoraptor]

4. Sounds like my kinda kult-can we have multiple wives?

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. What makes you think the wives need husbands?

:rofl:

[jody]

9. Will the eight babies all be female? nt

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. Yes.

They'll all be clones of the parent.

[sarge43]

10. They going to sell the kids on eBay? n/t

[Crunchy Frog]

12. Eight saviors instead of one.

What's not to love in a religion like that? :D