Sexual Nature 3/3
When a couple are expecting a baby, the big question is: girl or boy? Adam Rutherford explores the many ways Nature decides that question. If you\u2019re a human, a kangaroo or a komodo dragon, it\u2019s in the sex chromosomes. If you\u2019re a crocodile, it\u2019s the temperature of your egg. And if you\u2019re a fish, it can be one sex first and, later in the life, the other.
Adam\u2019s investigation includes conversation with Professor Jennifer Graves, a leading authority on sex determination, at La Trobe University in Australia. She explains what the weird nature of the platypus\u2019 sex chromosomes tells us about how human gender is decided.
Adam also meets one of London Zoo\u2019s Komodo Dragons, the world\u2019s largest and fiercest lizard. Female dragons can produce young without mating with males, but all their babies are males. How so?