Data from: The behavioural consequences of sex reversal in dragons

Sex differences in morphology, physiology, and behaviour are caused by
sex-linked genes, as well as by circulating sex-steroid levels. Thus, a
shift from genotypic to environmental sex determination may create an
organism that exhibits a mixture of male-like and female-like traits. We
studied a lizard species (Central Bearded Dragon, Pogona vitticeps), in
which the high-temperature incubation of eggs transforms genetically male
individuals into functional females. Although they are reproductively
female, sex-reversed dragons (individuals with ZZ genotype reversed to
female phenotype) resemble genetic males rather than females in morphology
(relative tail length), general behaviour (boldness and activity level),
and thermoregulatory tactics. Indeed, sex-reversed ‘females’ are more
male-like in some behavioural traits than are genetic males. This novel
phenotype may impose strong selection on the frequency of sex reversal
within natural populations, facilitating rapid shifts in sex-determining
systems. A single period of high incubation temperatures (generating
thermally induced sex reversal) can produce functionally female
individuals with male-like (or novel) traits that enhance individual
fitness, allowing the new temperature-dependent sex-determining system to
rapidly replace the previous genetically based one.