Researchers Confirm the First Crocodile 'Virgin Birth' Ever Recorded
Animals of all kinds never cease to amaze the people who love and care for them, but today is the crocodile's turn to impress. One female croc, in particular, gets major bragging rights after a paper published in Biology Letters confirmed that she essentially had a virgin birth.
Crocodiles don't give birth, of course, but this lone female laid fertile, viable eggs in 2018. One even developed into a fetus containing only the mother's genetics, but the egg unfortunately never hatched. NBC News sat down with biologist Jeff
Corwin to talk about this fascinating find.
That's mindblowing! It's one thing to learn about a single-celled organism reproducing by itself (thanks, high school biology), but this is game-changing information about an exotic animal we thought we were familiar with. If we're being honest, we had to listen to some facts twice for them to sink in!
There was no shortage of comments likening this croc to the Virgin Mary, and we'd be lying if we said we didn't think of that, too. Even so, we are just so impressed with this Costa Rican crocodile and her 'miracle' that we are itching to learn more.
As USA Today explains, this zoo animal had been isolated from other crocodiles for her whole life. Scientists also know that no male fertilized her eggs because only the mother's genetics were present in the stillborn fetus.
Virgin birth--or 'parthenogenesis'--has been recorded in several avian and lizard species, but this is the first time it's been witnessed in crocodiles. Most likely, it won't be the last time, either!
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