Oh another cute critter (thanks browser news feed), this time Actually Lizard - baby black water monitor (skip to 0:58 for lil' lizzie itself and avoid some incomprehensible heathen gabble) that hatched parthenogenetically about three months back in a specialist Helsinki zoo. Currently housed in a temporary juvenile terrarium until they can get a proper one built for it. Globally unique but this is actually their second such case; they had another some three years ago but it only lived a few weeks :c
Or, well, "he" more like - while this one hasn't yet been studied closely enough to confirm its sex it's nigh certainly a male; that's how it's been in all other recorded cases of varanid parthenogenesis (the females are p much DIYing mating partners for themselves, consanguinity be damned) and there's little reason to assume this species would break the norm.
last edited at Jul 20, 2020 5:14PM
