A new study says that male lizards are better mothers. The research was conducted on bearded dragons by researchers from the University of Canberra. The researchers found that bearded dragon lizards change their gender in the egg. The finding is quite surprising, but it's this they've observed.

This indicates that animals that change their gender from male to female are likely to become better mothers. This change of gender is called sex reversal; here an animal's chromosomes are not the same. The chromosomes appear and act differently.

The study has been published in the international journal Nature. The findings indicate that male lizards act as females. According to Dr Claire Holleley, from the University of Canberra, "So your genes are telling you that you should be a male, but you're actually living out your life as a female".

Scientists conducted the study using 131 adult lizards in controlled breeding experiments. As per Holleley, "They reproduce, and are completely functional females. The bearded dragons are the first species where we've actually been able to demonstrate this genetically".

Holleley added that it has been found for the first time that a reptile has sex reversal phenomena and it was thought that a skink species also underwent the phenomenon in addition to a fish.

According to her, reason behind the confusion was heat. Dr Holleley added that during development of an egg, thermosensitivity occurs in the middle of the incubation and if one gets exposed to a hot temperature during that time, it leads to sex reversal.