New Self-Cloning Lizard Found in Vietnam Restaurant

National Geographic News ^ | 8 November 2008 | Brian Handwerk

[Fractal Trader]

You could call it the surprise du jour: A popular food on Vietnamese menus has turned out to be a lizard previously unknown to science, scientists say.

What's more, the newfound Leiolepis ngovantrii is no run-of-the-mill reptile—the all-female species reproduces via cloning, without the need for male lizards.

Single-gender lizards aren't that much of an oddity: About one percent of lizards can reproduce by parthenogenesis, meaning the females spontaneously ovulate and clone themselves to produce offspring with the same genetic blueprint.

(Related: "Virgin Birth Expected at Christmas—By Komodo Dragon.")

"The Vietnamese have been eating these for time on end," said herpetologist L. Lee Grismer of La Sierra University in Riverside, California, who helped identify the animal.

"In this part of the Mekong Delta [in southeastern Vietnam], restaurants have been serving this undescribed species, and we just stumbled across it."

(See "New Snub-Nosed Monkey Discovered, Eaten.")

Wild Lizard Chase

Grismer's Vietnamese colleague Ngo Van Tri of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology found live lizards for sale in a restaurant in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province (see map).

Noting that the reptiles all looked strangely similar, Ngo sent pictures to Grismer and his son Jesse Grismer, a herpetology doctoral student at the University of Kansas.

The father-son team suspected that they may be looking at an all-female species. That's because the team knew that the lizard likely belonged to the Leiolepis genus, in which males and females in lizards have distinct color differences—and no males were apparent in the photos.

So the pair hopped on a plane to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), telephoned the restaurant to "reserve" the lizards, and began an eight-hour motorcycle odyssey—which ended in disappointment.

"When we finally got there, this crazy guy had gotten drunk and served them all to his customers," recalled Lee Grismer, who has received funding for other projects from the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)

Fortunately other area restaurants had the lizards on offer, and local schoolchildren helped gather more from the wild. Eventually the Grismers examined almost 70 of the lizards—and all turned out to be females.

[50mm]

Never trust Artiodactylas.

[bkepley]

This doesn’t sound right. I thought the exchange of DNA was pretty crucial to evolution.

[Tijeras_Slim]

How do they taste?

Like cloned chicken. $4.99 at Costco.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I thought the exchange of DNA was pretty crucial to evolution.

Then how do you explain West Virginia?

[Salamander]

Funny....I have 2 pet ones who are always trying to pull sneaking stunts.

Must be genetic.

[UCANSEE2]

I thought the exchange of DNA was pretty crucial to evolution.

So is survival.

[50mm]

I think the real ones are okay. It’s the fakes you have to watch.

[Salamander]

You haven’t ever had throw yourself between your beloved honeysuckle vines and the “real” ones, have you?....;-D

[allmendream]

It is usually nice to have genetic variation within a species, otherwise one good disease that causes fatality with the genome present could wipe out the entire population.

But much like most shark species, this lizard species probably doesn't need to change much to do what it needs to do, and apparently the “clone wars” that resulted from the first female of this species that started this offshoot was won by HER clones, and the male and female parent species was most likely out competed in its niche and driven extinct.

As such this is a demonstration of evolution through natural selection of genetic variation, it is just that this particular successful variation isn't amenable to creating further variation.

What I find interesting is that many parthenogenic lizards still meet up and “mate”. The physical act of humping on a lesbian lizard makes them ovulate a clone!

[Tunehead54]

Maybe the males are just harder to catch? Here's the only picture of the "delicacy" available (since there's only one its hard to remark on their similiarities:

You're welcome. For my part - I'm sticking with bone-in ribeye ... ;-)

[Tunehead54]

Oops! Here's another:

Just makes your mouth water ... ;-)

[reagan_fanatic]

And to think I was gonna have chicken for lunch.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Scientists are aware of problems with cloning such as if you try to clone a 7 year old sheep and are successful, the newborn lamb will have “old” genes and a much shorter lifespan. How does this species clone generation after generation without that problem?

[50mm]

You haven’t ever had throw yourself between your beloved honeysuckle vines and the “real” ones, have you?

Heck with that. I'd point out the labor-intensive vegetation that needs "pruned." Grass and trees are all I need.

[SunkenCiv]

and I thought *this* was weird:

Snake gives ‘virgin birth’ to extraordinary babies
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2620744/posts
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9139000/9139971.stm

At least no one in that article was eating one. :’)