week 1 - paper - sexual behaviour in parthenogenic lizards

Question 1

crows and fitzgerald 1979

Answer 1

crows and fitzgerald 1979

Question 2

Why are female parthenogenic species interesting to study?

Answer 2

because they afford a unique test of hypotheses regarding the nature and evolution of sexuality

Question 3

What did they find?

Answer 3

Discovered from observations of C.uniparens, c.velox, and c.tesselatus behaviour patterns remarkably similar to the courtship and copulatory behaviour of closely related sexual species.
One lizard was repeatedly seen to mount and ride its cage mate and appose the cloacal region

Question 4

How did they do it?

Answer 4

In separate housed pairs of lizards.

Question 5

Evidence that this was some sort of a sexual act

Answer 5

Dissection or palpation revealed that in each instance the courted animal was reproductively active, having ovaries containing large, preovulatory follicles, while the courting animal was either reproductively inactive or postovulatory having ovaries containing only small, undeveloped follicles

Question 6

what is the importance of their finding?

Answer 6

these observations are significant for the questions they raise, such as is this behaviour a non functional vestige of the species ancestry or is this behaviour necessary for successful reproduction in the species?