Reptile & Amphibian Forums

TGIF

Ok, here's the question: in Jeff(boaphile)'s Reptile Mag article
he talks about double ovulation and how that seems to be
normal (I noticed a double ov. in one of my girls and poss in the
other but I wasn't sure)... so does this mean that approx.
half the babies in any given litter could be a few weeks
premature compared to the rest? (well maybe not premies, but
younger in development?) Has anyone noticed this? Or
even tho one ovulation occurs a week or two after the other
the babies embryos have still developed at the same rate and
therefor all the babies would be the same size/development stage?

ahh... time for coffee
thanks for any thoughts on this matter.. it's amazing the
tangents the brain can go off on when obsessing about gravid boas.
lol

From the standpoint of a typical fertilization event, I would say that, yes, in a double ovulation cycle where there is successful fertilization after both ovulations, there will be a one to two week difference in developmental growth between the two waves of offspring. The alternative would have to be an arrest of the growth of the first zygotes by some hormonal pathway. That doesn't seem likely to me.

However, since babies all show a little variation in their size and weight even from a single ovulation, I think it would be very difficult for one to ever say "Oh, this half is all from the first ovulation, and these little guys are from the second."

Thoughts?

Well.. If the female were say, albino, and the first ovulation was fertilized by an albino and the second one maybe by a normal then you could tell which babies came from which ovulation. This would probably be tough in practice.

It would make sense that there would be size diff. within
the clutch as you stated... could be the double ov is the
reason for that! (I wasn't aware the babies could come out
diff. sized, I assumed they were all the same size when born)