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Water dragons and dna


soloman5

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As far as I know once an egg has been layed the sex of the wd has already been determined so the wd has it's dna from the start, then in incubation the sex is then determined by temperature, but dna does not change even though the sex of the dragon does. In theory a wd which was a male from the start but incubatored in female temperatures will develop but not as a full proper male so it probably won't have all of the male physical looks or be able to reproduce.

If my thinking is right how does dna testing work when no doubt it is possible for alot of "female" dragons to actually have started as male so the dna would be invalid, and again in theory there could be alot of "male" dragons mistaken as females because they don't colour up since they were incubatored as female????? :roll: :roll: :-? :-? :-?

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the egg is only one half of the equation.

if the temperature theory is correct for this species, a fertilised egg will develop over time into a male or female.

no doubt it is possible for alot of "female" dragons to actually have started as male so the dna would be invalid, and again in theory there could be alot of "male" dragons mistaken as females because they don't colour up since they were incubatored as female?????

No. it does not work that way at all. if your dna says you are a male, then you are a male. its not possible to trick those chromosomes into being another sex. there are exceptions for animals that can change sex at will / due to an environmental factor.

I remember learning about embryonic develoopment in animals - the terms gastrula (makes the body structure i think) and bastula come to mind. google them and see what comes up.

Again, I do not know if this holds true for WD's, but im pretty sure someone else on here does.

and when temp determines the sex - it does so over a period of time when the eggs are being incubated, so that egg may develop into a male or female. it is not an instant thing, and freshly hatched eggs are not animals, they have no sex and have not developed.

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some reptiles don't seem to conform to scientific rules

if it did happen as soloman has suggested then a raise in average mean temperature in their habitat may cause the extinction of that species

the Thai water dragon P. coccinus (spelling) in papers i have read is chromosonally sex determined

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Reptiles seem to come at this sex determination thing from a number of different angles. I hope that they are not psychologically damage because of this. I understand that beardies do not have a simple sex determination system either. It may be that it is quite simple but that we do not understand it.

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