21/01/2020
Komodo Dragon.
Most species across the Kingdom Animalia reproduce sexually. They required some type of fertilisation to occur where a male and female gamete fuse to produce an offspring that has a mixture of the father and mother's DNA.
The Komodo Dragon is the world's largest monitor lizard in the world. It is found mainly on the island of Komodo in Indonesia and some of the surrounding islands. Since its discovery by the western world just before WWI, it was thought that the Komodo dragon required sexual reproduction to procreate.
Then, one day, a female of the species in a zoo laid a clutch of eggs. These eggs then hatched and four juvenile Komodo dragons hatched. This would normally not have been too amazing, except for the fact that this particular female had not been in the company of a male for over two years. Orignially it was thought that maybe the female Komodo could have stored the s***m from a male for this length of time. However, after DNA analysis occurred, it was found that the offspring where genetic clones of the mother. They were produced via parthenogenesis and were all males. The Komodo dragon can only produce male offspring asexually it was discovered.
