For humans, sex is a simple matter of chromosomes: two Xs and we become female; one X and a Y and we develop into males. But things aren’t so straightforward for many lizards – many studies have found that the temperature of the nest also has a say, even overriding the influence of the chromosomes. But the full story of how the lizard got its sex is even more complicated. For at least one species, the size of its egg also plays a role, with larger eggs producing females, and smaller ones yielding males.

The discovery comes from Richard Shine’s group at the University of Sydney. In earlier work, they showed that if the Eastern three-lined skink (Bassiana duperreyi) incubates