Science
Related: About this forumVirgin births discovered in wild snakes (BBC)
By Jeremy Coles
Reporter, BBC Nature
Virgin births have been reported in wild vertebrates for the first time.
Researchers in the US caught pregnant females from two snake species and genetically analysed the litters.
That proved the North American pit-vipers reproduced without a male, a phenomenon called facultative parthenogenesis that has previously been found only in captive species.
Scientists say the findings could change our understanding of animal reproduction and vertebrate evolution.
It was thought to be extremely rare for a normally sexual species to reproduce asexually.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19555550
So ... Jesus snakes ?
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)Jesus? snakes?
After reading the post and article I took my usual next step: Wikipedia for facultative parthenogenesis.
First of all I learned the origin of the word parthenogenesis:
Second, virgin birth doesn't seem to be all that rare:
Third, depending on the parthenogenetic mechanism, the resulting individuals may be female or male, haploid, diploid, or polypoid:
When meiosis is involved, the sex of the offspring will depend on the type of sex determination system and the type of apomixis. In species that use the XY sex-determination system, parthenogenetic offspring will have two X chromosomes and are female. In species that use the ZW sex-determination system the offspring genotype may be one of ZW (female),[16][17] ZZ (male), or WW (non-viable in most species[19] but a fertile,[dubious discuss] viable female in a few (e.g., boas)).[19] ZW offspring are produced by endoreplication before meiosis or by central fusion.[16][17] ZZ and WW offspring occur either by terminal fusion[19] or by endomitosis in the egg cell.
In polyploid obligate parthenogens like the whiptail lizard, all the offspring are female.
And a result from stem cell research:
So, if that most famous of all virgin births was a case of parthenogenisis, the babe would probably not have developed a beard after puberty.
However, in the section on mammalian parthenogenesis, the Wikipedia article reports:
So, parthenogenesis in humans is most likely inconsistent with life. Not surprising.
Whew. Don't get out the paint. Let the mystery be.