Polyploidy is an unusual phenomenon in reptiles and has evolutionary relevance for the speciation process (Bogart, 1980). Polyploidy in reptiles is related to hybridization and introgression events between two or more species, and it is mostly found in parthenogenetic species (Choleva & Janko, 2013).

Does polyploidy occur in animals?

In fact, polyploidy exists across all major taxonomic animal groups and occurs even relatively frequently among some groups, particularly in fish and amphibians [Otto and Whitton, 2000; Mable et al., 2011].

What organisms are polyploidy?

Polyploidy is the heritable condition of possessing more than two complete sets of chromosomes. Polyploids are common among plants, as well as among certain groups of fish and amphibians. For instance, some salamanders, frogs, and leeches are polyploids.