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?

posted about 4 years ago

JohnWDailey‭

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