Christ's 2nd (3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th & 9th) Coming!

AutoPilate · Post by **AutoPilate** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:35 am

Virgin Komodo dragon is expecting

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.

"Nobody in their wildest dreams expected this. But you have a female dragon on her own. She produces a clutch of eggs and those eggs turn out to be fertile. It is nature finding a way," Kevin Buley of Chester Zoo in England said in an interview.

He said the incubating eggs could hatch around Christmas.

Parthenogenesis has occurred in other lizard species, but Buley and his team said this was the first time it has been shown in Komodo dragons -- the world's largest lizards.

Scientists at Liverpool University in northern England discovered Flora had had no male help after doing genetic tests on three eggs that collapsed after being put in an incubator.

The tests on the embryos and on Flora, her sister and other dragons confirmed that Komodo dragons can reproduce through self-fertilization.

"Those genetic tests confirmed absolutely that Flora was both the mother and the father of the embryos. It completely blew us away because it [parthenogenesis] has never been seen in such a large species," Buley explained.

A Komodo dragon at London Zoo gave birth earlier this year after being separated from males for more than two years.

Scientists thought she had been able to store sperm from her earlier encounter with a male, but after hearing about Flora's eggs researchers conducted tests which showed her eggs were also produced without male help.

"You have two institutions within a few short months of each other having a previously unheard of event. It is really quite unprecedented," said Buley.

The scientists, reporting the discovery in the science journal Nature, said it could help them understand how reptiles colonize new areas.

A female dragon could, for instance, swim to another island and establish a new colony on her own.

"The genetics of self-fertilization in lizards means that all her hatchlings would have to be male. These would grow up to mate with their own mother and therefore, within one generation, there would potentially be a population able to reproduce normally on the new island," Buley said.

agent_fondue · Post by **agent_fondue** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:37 am

ForeverMourn · Post by **ForeverMourn** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:46 am

Killthesmiley · Post by **Killthesmiley** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:46 am

are you saying our savior is.....a lizard...

well there is your explaination for the dinosaurs christians!

Beckers · Post by **Beckers** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:54 am

Killthesmiley wrote:are you saying our savior is.....a lizard...

well there is your explaination for the dinosaurs christians!

lol

nobackspacebutton · Post by **nobackspacebutton** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 1:14 pm

yes, but did you see the topic under that about the guy kids keep calling because they think he's santa??

O_O

spaciegirlreturn · Post by **spaciegirlreturn** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 9:39 am

I have never been so scared in al my life

Killthesmiley · Post by **Killthesmiley** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 10:33 am

the world is going to become a lizard-anity world.

agent_fondue · Post by **agent_fondue** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 12:16 pm

nobackspacebutton wrote:yes, but did you see the topic under that about the guy kids keep calling because they think he's santa??

O_O

Poor guy.

lonelyelendi · Post by **lonelyelendi** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 2:01 pm

Why do they think he is santa?

nobackspacebutton · Post by **nobackspacebutton** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:37 am

lonelyelendi wrote:Why do they think he is santa?

I was referencing that he got that story off of the mainpage of msn. At the time, the topic story underneath that was about santa.

In other news...anyone hear this?

A motorcycle-riding Santa Claus with a stuffed Rudolph in his sidecar
was arrested after allegedly grabbing an 8-year-old girl from outside a
South Carolina convenience store. John Michael Barton, 55, was in his
Claus outfit filling his bike with gas when the girl's family stopped by
the store.

The girl's father then saw Barton speeding off with her. After a chase
at speeds of up to 80 mph, Barton pulled over his motorcycle and turned
over the girl, police said.

Barton was arrested later, hiding inside a bar.

People are nutty!