BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- As Christmas approaches, a virgin mother is awaiting the arrival of her offspring.

    In an evolutionary twist, Flora, the Komodo dragon, has managed to become pregnant without any male help. It would seem the timing is auspicious: seven baby Komodo dragons are due this festive season.

    "We were blown away when we realised what she'd done," said Kevin Buley Wednesday, a reptile expert at Flora's home at the Chester Zoo in northern England. "But we certainly won't be naming any of the hatchlings Jesus."

    Flora has never mated, or even mixed, with a male dragon, and fertilized all the eggs herself, a process culminating in parthenogenesis, or virgin birth.

    "Nobody in their wildest dreams expected this. But you have a female dragon on her own. She produces a clutch of eggs and those eggs turn out to be fertile. It is nature finding a way," Buley said in an interview. He said the incubating eggs could hatch around Christmas.

    Parthenogenesis has occurred in other lizard species, but Buley and his team said this was the first time it has been shown in Komodo dragons -- the world's largest lizards.

    The scientists, reporting the discovery in the science journal Nature, said it could help them understand how reptiles colonize new areas. A female dragon could, for instance, swim to another island and establish a new colony on her own.

    Komodo dragons are among the largest reptiles on earth whose dozens of razor-sharp, serrated teeth are so teeming with bacteria that one bite can prove lethal to a human.

    (Agenices)

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