What species of lizard are all female?

Question

I was watching Most extreme mating rituals on Animal Planet, and their is a species of lizard that are all female.

when mating, one female will get on top of the other and act like there having sex. they are not really mating, they are only pretending. then by the power of their mind, the one will get pregnant.

Answer 1

Certain lizards in the genus cnemidophorus, which includes whiptails and racerunners, are all females. These lizards live in the western United States.

Answer 2

Hey, there are parthenogenetic populations of Cnemidophorus here in South America too!
In fact, parthenogenetic Cnemidophorus species (some are now in genus Aspidoscelis; all belong to family Teiidae) occur throughout America.

But parthenogenesis (which means "reproduction of virgins") has evolved independently in different lizard lineages; while it imposes certain constraints, it is an advantage in certain circumstances. It can also be the result of hybridization between closely related species. Many of these species have very similar "sibling species" with sexual reproduction, which might represent the original stock from whence they evolved.

Other parthenogenetic species are:
- The geckoes Heteronotia binoei and Lepidodactylus lugubris

- The lacertids Lacerta dahli, L. armeniaca and L. unisexualis (now included in genus Darevskia), known as Caucasian rock lizards

I'm sure there are more known cases, and probably also unknown ones. After all, the parthenogenetic populations are not easily recognizable, unless the researcher notices that there are no males to be seen!

While the females of these species don't need to be fertilized by a male, they often perform complicated rituals that are supposed to induce ovulation and egg development.
Here's a scientific article about the "pseudo-sexual" behavior that you saw in that TV documentary:
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/77/1/499

Answer 3

Heteronotia binoei, a Gecko in Australia can have populations that are all female ie they reproduce asexually through a process called parthenogenesis where the females lay fertile eggs but no mating is involved.
This process has an advantage in that the population can reproduce at a faster rate than through normal sexual reproduction. This is usually a product of harsh environmental conditions but has a genetic drawback because unlike in sexual reproduction where genetic diversity occurs through cross-linked genes, all the female asexually reproducing geckoes are clones of each other. This leaves the clones vulnerable to diseases that may wipe out the entire population as it has no genetic diversity ie no members that have a natural genetic resistance to a novel pathogen.

Answer 4

The lizards in question are whiptails interior the genus Cnemidophorus, and the asexual replica is an occasion of parthenogenesis. answer a is authentic, yet extinction isn't an evolutionary mechanism, hence it may't be ultimate. answer b is untrue, considering that desert environments are quite variable over all scales of distance and time. answer c is a pink herring, considering that crossing-over happens in all sexually-reproducing species, no longer in basic terms the ancestors of the parthenogenetic species. answer d is unscientifically worded. Organisms do no longer "attempt" to imitate something. to point that they do is anthropomorphism, which isn't allowed in technological awareness. while mimicry is cutting-edge, it rather is via fact particular behaviors or morphology has developed, no longer via fact some thing is "attempting" to imitate some thing else. additionally, mimicry according to se is an evolutionary effect, no longer an evolutionary mechanism. hence, all 4 options are patently incorrect. i do no longer know the place this question got here from, even though it rather is an enormously undesirable one written via a individual who does not understand biology o.k..

Answer 5

Actually there are several.
There are several different geckos that consist only of females - the Mourning Gecko or Common Smooth-Scaled Gecko Lepidodactylus lugubris is one famous one. http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/report-45166.html
Several papers have been written about racerunners that are all female race. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/77/1/499

Answer 6

The house gecko.

Answer 7

I swear that happened to someone I know but no one believes me!

Answer 8

i think i saw the same thing.....but i don't remember the name sorry
try searching on yahoo or something