Vasotocin is an ancient brain molecule that controls sexual urges in reptiles. This same molecule … also helps deliver reptilian young in the world. When a sea turtle, after thousands of miles of migration, lands on its ancestral beach and begins to dig its nest, an ancient bonding system comes into action.… Vasotocin levels in the mother turtle’s blood begin to rise as she digs a pit large enough to receive scores of eggs, and reach even higher levels as she deposits one egg after the other. With her labors finished, she covers the eggs, while circulating vasotocin diminishes to insignificant
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