Beardie with Male Physical Characteristics Laying Eggs?

I have owned my beardie Nero for about 2.5 years and he is roughly 3 years old. I always had trouble identifying whether it was a male or female. I could barely make out two small bumps on each side of the tail, even when shining a flashlight on it in the dark. They are so small that I posted images to this forum of Nero's physical appearance to confirm. Everyone said it was most likely a male because of his wide head, wide base of tail, and muscular appearance. Fast forward to today and he/she has 5 eggs in his/her tank! I am certain they are eggs but I have provided an image just in case. I also read a recent article where beardie's genders can change by temperature fluctuations - their genders can be determined not by their genes but by the temperature. Is this information correct? I have attached images, would you all say I have a male or a female? And any info on the sex changing characteristics would be great as I have a degree in biology so it's interesting to me. Thanks!

Hi there....I don't think it looks male at all. The wide, chubby belly looks much more like a female. Can you post a pic with her tail arched ? I'd like to see what you say looks like 2 small bulges. Sometimes it's just the lay out of muscles/tendons on the side of the tail. She's a pretty citrus girl though. And yes, those are slugs. [ Infertile eggs ]

Yes , at first glance , my guess would be female.

Thanks for the replies! Interesting, my post of her when she was one year old I think about 7/7 replies said she looked male. Must have grown to look more female since then. I will get a good pic under her tail when I get a chance later. Anyone know anything about this phenomenon? Appears to be a very recent discovery:
http://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-makes-lizards-change-sex-2015-7

Yes, I remember someone posted it on on of the subforums here a few months ago. I watched a nature program [ weird nature series, bizarre breeding ] that featured the fish changing that this article mentioned, too. It was sooooo interesting. Strange happenings !

The University of Canberra has been doing the breeding experiments and yep, beardies have been male and behaving and breeding as females, with apparently more success than just female base chromosome dragons.

From what I have read it's to do with the temperatures they experience while still inside their egg. So they effectively start out as male, then higher heat brings on the addition of the female chromosome. It's happening in the wild in Australia which is why they began studying it.

In alligators the gender is based on the temp at which the eggs develop in the nest as well. It seems this is just an extension of our beautiful and beloved beardies and another topic with which than can make us stress about them doing the right thing or not! Lol

If yr into biology, might be worth contacting University of Canberra and see if you can get your hands on their printed research

Zanna":2ymmhcki said:

The University of Canberra has been doing the breeding experiments and yep, beardies have been male and behaving and breeding as females, with apparently more success than just female base chromosome dragons.

From what I have read it's to do with the temperatures they experience while still inside their egg. So they effectively start out as male, then higher heat brings on the addition of the female chromosome. It's happening in the wild in Australia which is why they began studying it.

In alligators the gender is based on the temp at which the eggs develop in the nest as well. It seems this is just an extension of our beautiful and beloved beardies and another topic with which than can make us stress about them doing the right thing or not! Lol

If yr into biology, might be worth contacting University of Canberra and see if you can get your hands on their printed research

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Thank you, that is very informative. I actually read a research paper in Nature last week investigating this issue caused by climate change on wild beardies in Australia. As temperatures continue to rise, more dragons will be birthed female. In fact, this is a huge problem for most any reptile, as I know the majority determine gender in the egg due to temperature. The title of the paper if anyone is interested: "Sex reversal triggers the rapid transition from genetic to temperature-dependent sex."
It focuses on Pogona vitticeps in their natural habitats.

interesting .... I've speculated with other local beardie carers that I know if the tendency for many breeders (esp overseas ie USA) to keep their tanks quite hot (up around 110F basking spot temps) wouldn't cause males beardies in some cases to start behaving like females and even producing slugs if never mated or fertile clutches if matted.....

Not saying this is the case in this instance, but it may be a factor.

I believe I posted a link on this board about the studies being done into this sex switching in centrals.

As far as I've seen P. vitticepts are not a very sexually dimorphic species - males and females look pretty similar and the presence or lack of hemipenes is the only really accurate way to judge.

The Nature article isn't looking at spontaneous sex reversal but rather developmentally. I don't see it suggesting that developed physically male dragons are able to produce eggs, rather that genetically male dragons develop as physically female and can produce eggs resulting in the loss of the previous (chromosomal) sex determination. I'll have to find a full copy of the article since the abstract doesn't give detail of the sex ratio of the offspring.

Interestingly some 50 species of reptile exist as ONLY females. Parthenogenesis allows them to reproduce without males at all.

Taterbug":1wdpl2n5 said:

As far as I've seen P. vitticepts are not a very sexually dimorphic species - males and females look pretty similar and the presence or lack of hemipenes is the only really accurate way to judge.

The Nature article isn't looking at spontaneous sex reversal but rather developmentally. I don't see it suggesting that developed physically male dragons are able to produce eggs, rather that genetically male dragons develop as physically female and can produce eggs resulting in the loss of the previous (chromosomal) sex determination. I'll have to find a full copy of the article since the abstract doesn't give detail of the sex ratio of the offspring.

Interestingly some 50 species of reptile exist as ONLY females. Parthenogenesis allows them to reproduce without males at all.

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I think I posted the link and I think the entire scientific journal article when had my thread, but can't locate the URL as my Dell Inspiron 17R i7-4500U laptop's MB died since and I've since bought a new Dell AlienWare 17R4 quadcore i7 laptop in it's place.

Aside - it wasn't economically viable to replace the old laptop's motherboard (Dell wanted more for it than I paid for the computer when I bought it, so on the hunt for a refurbished i7-4500U motherboard - no luck there yet).

wesgtp":w93fhprr said:

Thanks for the replies! Interesting, my post of her when she was one year old I think about 7/7 replies said she looked male. Must have grown to look more female since then. I will get a good pic under her tail when I get a chance later. Anyone know anything about this phenomenon? Appears to be a very recent discovery:
http://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-makes-lizards-change-sex-2015-7

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Well...to be honest, I don't believe in climate change and global warming....

I'm with u Jess, I believe in Earth cycles lol but Lord don't let the Greens hear me say that rofl!

I was quoting what the scientists believe, but I'm convinced that we are still learning so much of what our own amazing planets flora and fauna is capable of..... space is intriguing I admit but we've barely touched the surface of our own ocean depths.

Bearded dragons in the wild must be far more excruciating to figure out if our own domestic babes are so perplexing

There was an article posted on the main page of this website on July 26, 2015 about some bearded dragons being able to change from male to female if they're kept really warm. You can still read it if you go to "view more". (It includes a warning not to try to make this happen by overheating your beardie. :wink: )

So I'd say you've either got a transgender beardie or a female that just looked male before she "filled out". But I'd also say that the eggs are a dead giveaway, even if they're not fertile. It's definitely a "she" now. :?

And BTW, she's very pretty too.

SHBailey":10txn4ld said:

There was an article posted on the main page of this website on July 26, 2015 about some bearded dragons being able to change from male to female if they're kept really warm. You can still read it if you go to "view more". (It includes a warning not to try to make this happen by overheating your beardie. :wink: )

So I'd say you've either got a transgender beardie or a female that just looked male before she "filled out". But I'd also say that the eggs are a dead giveaway, even if they're not fertile. It's definitely a "she" now. :?

And BTW, she's very pretty too.

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Depending on incubation temps the genes (sex chromosome specifically) may not match the anatomical sex but the dragons aren't changing after they hatch.

JessPets":1bc9i83j said:

Well...to be honest, I don't believe in climate change and global warming....

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Off topic but if 98% of structural engineers told you a bridge was unsafe, would you drive across it? So then, if 98% of scientists say human driven climate change is a real, growing issue, do you believe them? Interesting thought.

To my knowledge beardies can't switch sexes after development, as another poster pointed out. But temperature can affect their reproductive growth while developing. He may be genetically male, but as other posters pointed out, has that weird lizard thing where he took on a chromosome and can serve as a female in populations with low females. You might be able to have your veterinarian take a blood sample and have it analyzed to find out for sure. I don't know if your average vet has access to that kind of service, but I know at the zoo we use blood tests to settle any questions. Even then, we still have reptiles in our collection that are "inconclusive" or hermaphroditic due to other genetic abnormalities or weird reptile adaptations! They're crazy, cooky, weird, and fun.