Speaking of strange mating behavior, everyone will definitely think of what "crooked ideas" animals come up with in order to reproduce offspring, normal males fight for mates, and alternative females choose mates to a certain point of prominence of males, such as female proboscis monkeys with fat noses as "handsome", resulting in male proboscis monkeys getting longer and longer.
Proboscis monkey
Below we will talk about beyond the alternative, can be said to be a strange lizard family, lizard family as a large family of reptiles, in order to breed a few strange members can be completely understandable, but the way is a bit changeable, males play females, females play males, and even do not need males, these dramas are there, look down, I can only say that it is really difficult for offspring!
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > flat-bodied ring-tailed lizard "men dressed as women"</h1>
Flat-bodied ring-tailed lizard, native to Australia, The African desert, a small lizard originally did not have much attention, but the flat-body ring-tailed lizard has a characteristic that the male will have a beautiful colored appearance as soon as he becomes an adult, while the female body color is plain and simple, in order to avoid the attack of snakes and eagles, this dedication to the "female" would have been very touching, there is no absolute, such a feature also attracts cruel competition between the same sex.
A male with a beautiful appearance
Adult male flat-bodied ring-tailed lizards will judge each other's gender based on their iridescent appearance, as long as a juvenile flat-bodied ring-tailed lizard reveals its male sex, it will become the target of attacks of other adult males, and the result of this competition is that the young lizards will not only be chased and sometimes bitten and killed.
In order to survive the brutal competition of same-sex oppression, some male flat-bodied ring-tailed lizards acquire iridescent appearance much later than other lizards of the same age, and scientists point out that some juvenile male flat-bodied ring-tailed lizards disguise themselves as females to avoid attacks from strong males by delaying their iridescent appearance. Of course, this is not a panacea, in nature, adult male flat-bodied ring-tailed lizards will be by licking the skin of the same kind to obtain taste, in order to identify each other's gender, those who disguise themselves as female juvenile male flat-body ring-tailed lizards themselves do not produce female hormones, there is no female odor, in order to prevent the wear of gangs, the best way is to stay away from adult males.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "female-dressed man" maned lion lizard</h1>
The maned lion lizard is a diurnal, semi-arboreal lizard of the family Flying Lizard family, mainly distributed in the desert environment of eastern Australia, with a length of about 40 cm and a length of up to 49 cm, with a large body and spine-like scales on its back and neck. They often bluff by inflating their jaws to protect themselves from enemies, which is why their name comes from, and their food is mainly insects and plants.
A maned lion lizard with a bulging whisker
When the maned lion lizard is mated, there will not be a group of females admiring the fight of the male, the picture of the female holding popcorn "watching the play" is too harmonious, in the world of the maned lion lizard, only the male fights the male, and the female is also fighting, or the male is watching the female "perform", only the strong female has the opportunity to mate with the male and give birth to her own offspring.
At the same time, in order to avoid the matemate of the defeated female maned lion lizard, the strong female maned lion lizard will turn black during the breeding period, imitating the appearance of the male, which is not full of food, the female maned lion lizard after the "female dressed as a man" will pretend to find those weak and defeated female maned lion lizards to "mate", lying on the weak female body twisting, so that the weak female feels as if she has completed mating and waiting for the egg, this may be next year, but when they become stronger, they will do the same thing. After all, only strong females have a high survival rate of eggs.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "What is male, I don't need to!" The New Mexico whiptail lizard stages the "daughter country" of the reptile world</h1>
The New Mexican whiptail lizard has a slender body, especially its tail, which is even longer than its body length, and there are several longitudinal markings on the surface of its body that run through the head. Widely distributed in the southwestern United States, Mexico and the South American continent, they live in desert grassland environments, and when the sun is shining, these usually hidden lizards will appear on the bare gravel to bask in the sun, but when the temperature rises at noon, they will burrow into the cave. They are active in the daytime foraging, preying mainly on small insects.
On Earth, the vast majority of animals are sexually reproduced, and a small number of asexual reproduction animals we are accustomed to, but the general asexual reproduction is directly copying the mother's DNA, the essence of which is genetic cloning, but the New Mexico whiptail lizard is not like this, their parthenogenesis is more special. Before the eggs are formed, the cells of the female whiptail lizard become twice as large as the normal chromosomes, so that even unfinished eggs have the same number of chromosomes as the number of normally fertilized eggs, and in this mode, their genetic diversity can be matched with that of sexually reproducing lizards.
Why is this happening? According to my guess, there is a possible reason that the first female whiptail lizards also suffered from calculations like the maned lion lizard, some female whiplash lizards did not wait for their offspring in the long wait, one of the female whiptail lizards unexpectedly did not undergo mating but gave birth to offspring, their offspring are females and a small number of survivors, these parthenogenetic whiptail lizards away from the reproductive struggle, slowly became the mainstream, and thus completed all the replacement.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
The lizard family's strange breeding behavior is far more than that, in order to keep their offspring alive, racking their brains to come up with various ideas, as long as it works, there is no worry.
Like the New Mexico whiptail lizard is indeed the handiwork of the magical creator, but what is the reason why they can reproduce so soundly and solitary, my opinion is only speculation, readers who have their own ideas remember to comment.