Could Reptiles Be Simultaneous Hermaphrodites?

Reptile reproduction, it turns out, is more flexible than our own. Whiptails, a girls-only species, can lay unfertilized eggs without the need for a male. And Komodo dragons have recently been discovered to perform parthenogenesis, or virgin birth, even though they are also capable of sexual reproduction.

But could a species of reptile--preferably a squamate or a crocodylomorph--be hermaphroditic? And no, I'm not talking about "sequential hermaphrodites", which are boys that are born girls. I'm talking about "simultaneous hermaphrodites", meaning that they carry both male and female sex organs and can fertilize both each other and themselves. In reptile physiology, is this sort of adaptation within the realm of possibility?

is a duplicate

This question has been asked before and has already been answered. It should be marked as a duplicate.

Please enter the URL of the proposed duplicate in the details field below.

not constructive

This question cannot be answered in a way that is helpful to anyone. It's not possible to learn something from possible answers, except for the solution for the specific problem of the asker.

Communities

Could Reptiles Be Simultaneous Hermaphrodites?

0 comment threads

0 answers