According to an article published today in The Royal Society Publishing’s Biology Letters by a team from the Polytechnic Institute of Virginia and the University of Virginia, the first case of a female crocodile becoming pregnant of her own accord has been identified at a zoo in Costa Rica in Tulsa, from the U.S.
What happened:
The animal gave birth to a fetus that was 99.9% genetically identical to her., proving the absence of other DNA, explains scientific research. The egg was laid by the 18yearold animal in January 2018, the fetus was fully developed but stillborn and therefore did not hatch, and the animal died.
Dubbed the “virgin birth” by researchers, the phenomenon has also been noted in species in birds, fish and other reptiles but never before in crocodiles.
Researchers found that the fetus was more than 99.9% genetically identical to the mother. Image: Disclosure / The Royal Society
The scientific team brought in researcher Warren Booth, who studies “virgin births,” scientifically known as parthenogenesis.This is a form of reproduction in which an embryo develops without the egg cell being fertilized.
Booth surmised that the reason parthenogenesis has not been observed in crocodiles is that humans do not search for them. The researcher says another theory is that the phenomenon occurs in lowdensity populations, such as those threatened with extinction.
The study also shows that the fact that multiple species have this ability suggests it was inherited from a common ancestor.Therefore, there is the hypothesis that dinosaurs could possibly also reproduce themselves.
It is not uncommon for reptiles to lay clutches of eggs in captivity. Due to the partners’ time in isolation, these would usually be considered nonviable and discarded. These results therefore suggest that eggs should be screened for their potential viability in the absence of males.”
Excerpt from the article “Discovery of facultative parthenogenesis in a new world crocodile”