Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just found this article, thought it was interesting given the embryo gender discussion down below:

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May05/birds.gender.ssl.html
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Thanks,
Ed

Ed,
...Another good article. As we know in humans the sex is determined by the X and Y chromosones and soon after the egg is fertilized and cell division begins the chromosonally determined sex causes the production of the correct androgenic hormones and those hormones are responsible for the subsequent cell divisions that take place differently in males and females to produce the primary sex organs and other sexual differences. It is pretty neat that in the more primitive avian reproduction, at least in chickens and the other birds mentioned in the study that hormone levels prior to fertilization determine what sex eggs the female will primarily produce. I find it odd that the study mentions no commercial applications soon. I would think that the poultry industry which could save millions of dollars not having to hatch and then identify and then destroy male chicks would be all over this as quickly as possible. Of course that would limit the availability of cheap male chicks as snake food.
Jeff

>>Just found this article, thought it was interesting given the embryo gender discussion down below:
>>
>>http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May05/birds.gender.ssl.html
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>>Thanks,
>>Ed

Hey Jeff,

Hard to focus anymore on this after the "man on Indigo snake neck" thread, see my long winded post below ("I have a theory" thread) if you hadn't seen it. I was really surprised that in some reptiles and birds that the female's sex chromosomes determine the embryo's gender. I'm also thinking that temperature might be a red herring for BRB's. It's certainly a possibility temp could effect the egg's sex chromosome, but there could be many other factors as well. Without controlled experiments, can't really prove anything, but I think it's fun to speculate about it.

Now if you and Dave can measure the progesterone levels in your females, maybe we can make some progess!

>>Ed,
>>...Another good article. As we know in humans the sex is determined by the X and Y chromosones and soon after the egg is fertilized and cell division begins the chromosonally determined sex causes the production of the correct androgenic hormones and those hormones are responsible for the subsequent cell divisions that take place differently in males and females to produce the primary sex organs and other sexual differences. It is pretty neat that in the more primitive avian reproduction, at least in chickens and the other birds mentioned in the study that hormone levels prior to fertilization determine what sex eggs the female will primarily produce. I find it odd that the study mentions no commercial applications soon. I would think that the poultry industry which could save millions of dollars not having to hatch and then identify and then destroy male chicks would be all over this as quickly as possible. Of course that would limit the availability of cheap male chicks as snake food.
>>Jeff
>>
>>>>Just found this article, thought it was interesting given the embryo gender discussion down below:
>>>>
>>>>http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May05/birds.gender.ssl.html
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>>>>Thanks,
>>>>Ed
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Thanks,
Ed

Very cool article. I had no idea that animals could manipulate the sex of their offspring just by manipulating hormones. Thanks for the link.
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Thank you,

Tim

0.1 wc girlfriend- Melissa (still nippy even after a year and a half of loving care)
0.1 CRB- Tempest
0.1 JCP- Serenity
1.0 Black Cat- Chester A Arthur