Viviparous lizard selects sex of embryos

Kylie A. Robert () and Michael B. Thompson
Additional contact information
Kylie A. Robert: School of Biological Sciences and Institute of Wildlife Research, University of Sydney
Michael B. Thompson: School of Biological Sciences and Institute of Wildlife Research, University of Sydney

Nature, 2001, vol. 412, issue 6848, 698-699

Abstract: Abstract No one suspected that temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD)1,2,3, whereby the sex of embryos depends on the temperature at which they develop, might occur in viviparous (live-bearing) reptiles, because thermoregulation in the mother results in relatively stable, raised gestation temperatures. But here we show that developing embryos of the actively thermoregulating viviparous skink Eulamprus tympanum are subject to TSD, offering the mother the chance to select the sex of her offspring and a mechanism to help to balance sex ratios in wild populations.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35089135 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:412:y:2001:i:6848:d:10.1038_35089135

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35089135

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().