It's all because of climate change and global warming

Jul 6, 2015 08:18 GMT  ·  By
Study finds male dragon lizards in the Australian wilderness are turning into females
   Study finds male dragon lizards in the Australian wilderness are turning into females

It's no news that climate change and global warming are reshaping the world as we know it. Polar ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, and there's even talk that a mass extinction is upon us

As it turns out, these phenomena need also be blamed for the fact that male bearded dragon lizards living in the Australian wilderness are turning into females. Females sporting all the right anatomical particularities allowing them to breed and lay eggs, that is.

In fact, it appears that these males-turned-females make better mothers than the natural born lady bearded dragon lizards in that they are more fertile and produce more eggs, researchers with the University of Canberra write in a paper in the journal Nature.

“We found that sex-reversed mothers - females who are genetic males - laid more eggs than normal mothers,” explains study author Clare Holleley, as cited by Science Daily. “So in a way, one could actually argue that dad lizards make better mums,” the specialist further argues.

Why exactly are male lizards becoming females?

Interestingly, scientists have for some time now been aware of the fact that male bearded dragon lizards can, under very specific circumstances, turn into females. In a series of laboratory experiments, it was shown that this happens when they are exposed to extreme temperatures.

What with climate change and global warming progressing at a rapid pace, it appears that such shifts are now becoming quite common in the wild. Thus, having captured and studied several such reptiles, researchers found that, although female, they carried male chromosomes.

Further, the scientists say that, when the undercover males were introduced to normal ones, they had no trouble mating and giving birth to a new generation. What this means is that climate change is affecting the demographic of this population of reptiles to a greater extent than assumed.

Efforts are now underway to better understand how and why exposure to extreme temperatures causes male bearded dragon lizards to turn into females. The goal is to try and gain a better understanding of how climate change and global warming will transform global biodiversity.

“The more we learn about them, the better-equipped we'll be to predict evolutionary responses to climate change and the impact this can have on biodiversity globally,” says researcher Clare Holleley.