1. The Komodo Dragon's Tale

Comment #14695 by Andrew Roberts on December 24, 2006 at 11:59 am

A bit off the topic but of interest (certainly to me!). The Seychelles warbler which inhabits a few islands of the Seychelles archipelago can influence the sex of its offspring, 90% female in a high quality territory to 80% male in a low quality territory. It is one of the few vertebrates with chromosomal sex determination (CSD) that can do this. The mechanism is poorly understood! See the Nature paper at http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v88/n2/full/6800018a.html for a fuller description and other examples.

2. The Komodo Dragon's Tale

Comment #14694 by Andrew Roberts on December 24, 2006 at 11:37 am

Re. comment 18 by Riley: this is stretching the memory cells a bit but I recall that all the human "females" that are not XX are infertile. I also recall that there are females that are XY, called testicular feminization syndrome. They are morphologically female but genetically male. It is now called complete androgen insensitivity syndrome. See http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=14430 for a full description.

3. Richard Dawkins on the Mike Dickin Show

Comment #13559 by Andrew Roberts on December 18, 2006 at 11:13 am

Ole (comment 13537) asks for a good book on evolution. I can thoroughly recommend Carl Zimmer's "Evolution: The triumph of an idea". It's a big book sure, but superbly written and a reference for many years to come. I am on my 3rd reread which is by far the most I have done for any book. For a sample of Zimmer's writing see the November issue of National Geographic and the article: From Fins to Wings on page 110.