On chinadaily.com.cn

Science: Turtle gender is decided by heat

Turtle embryos can determine their sex while developing in eggs by moving around to change their temperature, according to Chinese-Australian research. By monitoring clutches of turtle eggs, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Australia's Macquarie University showed that not only does temperature determine the sex of turtle hatchlings, the embryos actually shift within the eggs to change their own outcome. In most turtle species, eggs exposed to high temperatures are more likely to be female and eggs exposed to cooler temperatures are more likely to be male. The dramatic effect of temperature on turtle embryos has raised concerns about the effects of global warming, with reports last year showing that around 99 percent of turtles born in the warmer regions of Australia's Great Barrier Reef were female.

Photos: Chongqing 'painted' by Van Gogh