![]() Three of Flora’s eggs tragically collapsed while they were being incubated, but this provided Phillip Watts and colleagues from the University of Liverpool to trace their origins. One of these, Flora, lives at Chester Zoo where she has laid a clutch of 25 eggs despite never having been kept with a male. In Europe, only two female dragons, both living in England, are sexually mature. Fifty-two zoos around the world co-operate in a dedicated breeding programme that aim to boost the natural populations of these largest of lizards. Komodo dragons are an endangered species in their island homes of Indonesia. The mother is called Flora, and she is a komodo dragon. ![]() Nonetheless, in a few short weeks, eight more virgin births are expected in the English town of Chester. The New Testament aside, shunning fertilisation and giving birth to young through parthenogenesis is rare among higher animals, occurring in only one in every thousand species. A biologist might describe this with the unwieldy word ‘parthenogenesis’, the Greek version of the more familiar term ‘virgin birth’(‘parthenos’ means virgin, and ‘genesis’ means birth.) This ability helps dragon populations to recover in the wild, but it may push the remaining few closer to extinction.Īccording to Christian lore, Mary gave birth to baby Jesus without ever having had sex with Joseph. ![]() Now, scientists have found that two Komodo dragons in English zoos have done the same.
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