Biologists at the University of Sydney, have observed for the first time that an Australian lays smooth lizard first eggs and, later, a living young animal brings to the world. Sounds bizarre, but it makes a lot of sense.
First of all, the Australian native lizard laid three eggs, and then weeks later brought the smooth lizard Saiphos equalis also a living young animal from the same pregnancy. This is the first Time that such an event was documented in a single throw of vertebrate animal-young animals.
Researcher Camilla Whittington, with another smooth echsenart, a Stachelskink
Two-Fold Reproductive Ability
“It’s a very unusual discovery,” said Camilla Whittington of the “School of Life and Environmental Sciences” at the University of Sydney. The observation is published this week in Biology Letters, together with a detailed microscopy of the Eiabdeckungen.
The Skink species originates from the East coast of Australia. In the Northern high country of New South Wales, the animals normally living young animals to the world, but in and around Sydney, living animals lay eggs. Smooth lizards belong to the rare species of vertebrates, in which both reproductive variants, watch – where some individuals lay eggs, and other live Young. But, so far, has never been observed that vertebrate animals do both in a litter.
The smooth lizard Saiphos equalis remains flexible through its mixed reproductive ability
Hedge against environmental fluctuations
According to Whittington, it is in vertebrates at least 150 evolutionary Transitions of eggs, legend to viviparous. “The first vertebrate animals laid eggs, but in the course of Evolution some species have developed the ability to carry embryos longer in the body. We generally only think of humans and other mammals, which give birth to live. But there are also many species of reptiles that do that.” Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages.
“In the context of the evolutionary biology of animals, which can switch between Laying eggs and live birth are able to insure their Offspring according to environmental conditions,” the biologist Whittington.
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