They're Also Searching For The Genetic Key To The Fourth Watcher: Transgenic Reptilian Species With Four Sets Of Chromosomes Created In Lab That Can Reproduce Its Own "Hybrid Clones"

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They're Also Searching For The Genetic
Key To The Fourth Watcher: Transgenic Reptilian Species With Four Sets Of Chromosomes Created In Lab That Can Reproduce Its Own "Hybrid Clones"

Aspidoscelis neavesi was created in a lab by breeding two related species of lizards. Normally, hybrid animals are sterile, but as Carl Zimmer reports for the New York Times, A. neavesi defied that biological expectation and began reproducing in the lab—not by mating, but by cloning itself. As Zimmer reports, the scientists found that the offspring of those lizards did indeed possess four sets of chromosomes. The females with four sets of genes then began cloning themselves, eventually producing a colony of 200 lizards, which is still growing. After confirming that they had created a new species, the scientists named it Aspidoscelis neavesi, after William B. Neaves, who led the study and who first discovered the four-chromosome lizards back in 1967. Some scientists, however, think that biology needs a brand new term to describe A. neavesi, since the entire species consists of clones. Something like "hybrid clones," one...