Post by tiger501 on May 18, 2007 12:37:53 GMT 1
One Tough Mother
An Australian lizard endures what may be the world's worst pregnancy — due to anatomical restrictions, pregnant Australian stumpies must hold a gut-busting infant weighing more than a third as much as an adult, without any swelling or extra body space.
The feat is equivalent to a woman giving birth to a seven-year-old child.
"I can't think of another animal that has such a large gestational load," said Suzy Munns, who last week experienced a veritable baby boom with mother stumpies she had collected from the south Australian desert.
Munns, a researcher in the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at James Cook University, is conducting ongoing studies on how these lizards, which can grow to over 15 inches in length, survive such a difficult pregnancy.
Munns' findings were published recently in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.
