Scientists Encouraged by Komodo Dragon 'Virgin Birth'
By Rob Harris, AP
01/25/07 10:18 AM PT


Flora, a Komodo dragon living in Chester Zoo in England, has become the second of her species to be observed giving birth to offspring without ever having a male partner. The phenomenon, known as parthenogenesis, is known to occur in other reptile species as well. Scientists hope the discovery will pave the way to finding other species capable of self fertilization.

In an evolutionary twist, the newborns' eight-year-old mother Flora shocked staff at Chester Zoo in northern England when she became pregnant without ever having a male partner or even being exposed to the opposite sex.

Captive breeding could ensure the survival of the world's largest lizards, with fewer than 4,000 Komodos left in the wild.

full story:  http://www.technewsworld.com/story/U12S5LpHqiU4yk/Scientists-Encouraged-by-Komodo-Dragon-Virgin-Birth.xhtml

Also, according to a similar article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, when fully grown to 10-feet long and weighing about 300 pounds, they'll be capable of eating a whole pig or deer at one sitting, hooves and all.

Komodos are native to the arid volcanic Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia and are named for the island where they were discovered in 1910.
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And who says that dinosaurs don't exist today?  A grown Komodo dragon could eat a human, toenails and all.  Yikes!  :shock:

This new self-fertilization could be a way that Nature is adapting to the continued extinction of animal species.  This could be an evolutionary happening, which would only help validate Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

It reminds me of the scene in "Jurassic Park" ~ "Life found a way" :D

Why can I quote "Jurassic Park", you may ask, my 9 year old was obsessed with it when she was a toddler. She would get in her room and battle dinosaurs for hours.  She could name all of them in her books.  She still loves them.

We went out one day and a woman was telling her how cute she was and she looks at the lady and tells her "I kill dinosaurs with brooms", I like to have died.  The little old lady looked at me and asked if that was what she said, and I told her that it was.  She found a reason to walk away real quick like :oops:  :roll:

Now I think it is hilirious!!!  I repeat to my family all the time!  It is like our family motto :shock: