How Long Results Of Protein

discovered a lizard can clone himself

The species is part of traditional menus of the restaurants in the Mekong Delta region in southern Vietnam, but until recently had gone totally unnoticed by the science. When researchers came up with the lizard in the water tank of a food store, not only discovered a new species, but also were impressed by his formidable capacity: females can reproduce "clone" themselves, without having sex . The research is published in the journal Zootaxa It specializes.

Several specimens of this lizard, called Leiolepis ngovantrii, were discovered by a member of the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology in a restaurant in the province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. The scientist noted that all copies were identical, and sent pictures to a herpetologist La Sierra University in Riverside (California), L. Lee Grismer. The investigator classified the lizard within the genus Leiolepis, but in this group males and females have different coloration, and realized that the animals appeared only photograph of a color.

All were females.

Excited with his discovery, Grismer contacted the restaurant owner to keep alive his creatures and went to Vietnam in search. When he arrived, the man had sold the lizards, but the scientist managed to locate in other establishments. Aided by citizens of the area, found 70 specimens, some of them lived in freedom. Again, all were females.

The birth of a virgin

Grismer believed that the species may be a hybrid between two species of lizards that are developed in different habitats. This animal is able to reproduce by cloning, without the need for a male a process known as parthenogenesis, whereby the egg becomes an embryo without being fertilized. Parthenogenesis also occurs in some other species of lizards and, occasionally, fish and other invertebrates. It has also been artificially induced in mice and other species.

Some researchers believe that this species, which inhabits the coastal dunes and scrub, is more prone to extinction because of reduced genetic variation from one generation to the next.

Via ABC