The Fascinating Self-Breeding of Komodo Dragons
How these real-life dragons pull off true “immaculate conception”
When it comes to taking over an environment and increasing your population as fast as possible, bacteria have a huge advantage over humans and most animals: asexual reproduction.
Imagine if humans were capable of having offspring, without needing to ever have sex. No need to get another person involved; you could just focus your resources for a few months on creating a clone, and pop! Out comes a doppelgänger, ready to continue your legacy.
Most plants and animals on Earth aren’t capable of this self-replicating asexual reproduction — and it makes sense. There are some important reasons to have sex, from a population biology standpoint.
But sometimes, the ability to reproduce asexually — to self-breed, to create an “immaculate conception” level baby — can be useful. A few creatures can pull this off.
And one of those is the Komodo monitor, also popularly known as the Komodo dragon.
Here’s how it works, why it’s beneficial — and why, in the end, it’s not as good as sexual reproduction.
