Parthenogenesis
Read the following article on parthenogenesis (a form of asexual reproduction) that sometimes occurs in komodo dragons: https://www.livescience.com/9460-female-komodo-dragon-virgin-births.html Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9sF5D9FOug Additional information on komodo dragons can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komodo_dragon Read carefully to figure out how baby komodo dragons can be created without a male. It is also important to know that komodo dragons use the ZW system for sex determination; that is, females are ZW and males are ZZ. Pretend that you are a female komodo dragon living alone on a desert island without any males. Write a first person narrative from the komodo dragon’s perspective describing how you can reproduce without males if necessary. Have fun with this, but get the biology facts in and keep it clean 🙂 In your response, be sure to mention how meiosis and mitosis both contribute to the production and growth of your parthenogenetic offspring. Are your offspring clones of you, or are they unique, and why? What is their sex, and why? How does their genetic diversity compare to offspring produced by sexual reproduction, and why? From an evolutionary perspective, which method of reproduction is more desirable for survival of your species as long as males are around – asexual or sexual, and why?
