To make a new species

摘要

By mating a female lizard that has three sets of chromosomes with a male that has just the typical two, researchers have created a new species. Several species of all-female whiptail lizard roam the deserts of New Mexico. They typically reproduce through an asexual process called parthenogenesis. But matings between all-female species and males of other species have, in the past, created 'triploid' hybrids - which have three sets of chromosomes - that then produced sterile offspring.