Virgin Birth Announced

Scientists hail Komodo dragon's virgin birth

Oh were you expecting something else?

Like maybe about some Man-God and his mother.



And it was orginally expected for her to give birth at Christmas....oh well a month late.....

It is as if Dr Ian Malcolm from Steven Spielberg’s cult classic Jurassic Park has been vindicated.

His statement ‘Life always finds a way’ rings true today as Flora, the virgin komodo dragon prepares to give birth to little dragons in the Chester Zoo, United Kingdom. Seven baby komodo dragons are due this festive season. So what is so special about the birth of these little ones? Flora conceived them without any male help.

Other reptile species produce asexually in a process known as parthenogenesis. But Flora’s virginal conception and that of another komodo dragon earlier this year at the London Zoo, are the first times it has been documented in a komodo dragon. The reptiles, renowned for their intelligence, are native to Indonesia. They are the world’s largest lizards and have no natural predators – making them survive at par with snakes and lions at the pinnacle of the animal kingdom.

The cases of Flora and the London lizard, Sungai, are described in a paper published in the magazine Nature.

Parthenogenesis is a process in which eggs become embryos without male fertilization. It has been seen in about 70 species, including snakes and lizards. Scientists are unsure about whether female komodo dragons have always had this latent ability to reproduce or if this is a new evolutionary development.

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