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No matter how remote the Hawaiian islands are,or how hostile, |
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there is one creature that has reached almost all of them |
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The mourning gecko |
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It is the ultimate castaway, |
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the marathon winner on the long journey from New Guinea |
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Incredibly, |
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the female mourning gecko has done away with the need for a mate |
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Instead, she simply produces eggs that need no fertilisation |
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So one single female washed up on an island could start a whole population |
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Along with this extraordinary ability |
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these thick-skinned and salt-resistant geckos |
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could also survive long sea passages on rafts |
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and even the force of cyclones |
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But there is more to the gecko's story than this |
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Less than 2,000 years ago, |
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something happened that was to revolutionise the spread of plantsand animals |
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Taking to their sailing boats once more, |
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descendants of the Lapita left the central Pacific |
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and set off again in search of new lands into the great unknown |