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Whiptail Lizard: Sex? No Thanks! We’ll Clone Ourselves Instead.


Whiptail Lizard in pseudocopulation (Image Credit: Tino Mauricio, Daily Texan)

How does a whiptail lizard have sex? Trick question! There are no males - all whiptail lizards are females, so they can’t have sex at all. Wait a minute - so how do they reproduce? By cloning themselves:

In the bizarre life of a whiptail lizard, reproduction is preceeded by pseudocopulation, where two females act out the roles of a male mounting a female (they switch roles later on).

Apparently, this is required to stimulate egg production in both lizards. When the eggs hatch, they will be all-female clones of the mother lizard. (Source)

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