A Fuller View

Someone sent me a link to this very intersting piece in NYT on Komodo Dragons: Birds Do It. Bees Do It. Dragons Don’t Need To. Basically, to many people’s surprise Komodo Dragon females can produce virgin births.

Judging from similar occurrences over the past two years in Britain, it appears that these lizards [Komodo Dragons] sometimes use a form of virgin birth in which eggs hatch without conception. The embryos are genetic clones of the mother.

…

And that is the point. Biology is about variation. Without variation, the world would be static and unchangeable, and species would gradually disappear as they failed to meet challenges like changing climates and environments. So as we continue our very necessary debates over ethical issues, let’s bear in mind that morality is a concept limited to our species. The natural world is a fuzzy place that doesn’t always accommodate our decidedly human need to find cut-and-dried categories.