Elderly python has immaculate conception

[Eldorado]

"Experts at a US zoo are trying to figure out how a 62-year-old ball python laid seven eggs despite not being near a male python for at least two decades.

"Three of the eggs from the snake in St Louis zoo remain in an incubator, two were used for genetic sampling and snakes in the other two eggs did not survive, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The eggs were laid on 23 July and should hatch in about a month."

Full story at the UK Guardian: Link

And at the Denver Channel: Link

[acute]

I hope these baby snakes don't resemble the zookeeper. 

[Piney]

1 hour ago, Eldorado said:

"Experts at a US zoo are trying to figure out how a 62-year-old ball python laid seven eggs despite not being near a male python for at least two decades.

Some reptiles, amphibians and female siblings do that under duress.........at least that's what she said..  

[Nnicolette]

I heard that aside from snakes sometimes producing rare unfertilized self replicated all female offspring, that some are able to store sperm dna from past encounters for later use. Has anybody heard of this or know what its called?

[Eldorado]

4 minutes ago, Nnicolette said:

I heard that aside from snakes sometimes producing rare unfertilized self replicated all female offspring, that some are able to store sperm dna from past encounters for later use. Has anybody heard of this or know what its called?

"A female python can keep the male's sperm inside of her until a later date, if climate conditions are not favorable. Females may also have several male counterparts mate with them in a single season.

"Although uncommon, parthenogenesis has been documented in captive pythons. Parthenogenesis is the process of mating without a male. The female will fertilize an egg within herself, creating offspring with identical DNA. This is an adaptation to reproduce even when males are not present. (Mullin and Seigel, 2009; Seigel and Collins, 2001; Willson and Dorcas, 2011)"

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Python_reticulatus/

[Nnicolette]

19 minutes ago, Eldorado said:

"A female python can keep the male's sperm inside of her until a later date, if climate conditions are not favorable. Females may also have several male counterparts mate with them in a single season.

"Although uncommon, parthenogenesis has been documented in captive pythons. Parthenogenesis is the process of mating without a male. The female will fertilize an egg within herself, creating offspring with identical DNA. This is an adaptation to reproduce even when males are not present. (Mullin and Seigel, 2009; Seigel and Collins, 2001; Willson and Dorcas, 2011)"

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Python_reticulatus/

Thank you! Do you know what storing sperm for later is called? I googled it and didnt see a nane, but i did see this snippet 

"Many other animals have been found to store sperm, including the domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). In 2011, researchers at North Carolina and Georgia State Universities found that the eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus) stored sperm for an exceptionally long period of time."

 

I'm sure this will prove to be actual pathogenesis then, because from what I'm seeing the longest snakes can store sperm is 7-8 years.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Nnicolette

[Eldorado]

19 minutes ago, Nnicolette said:

Thank you! Do you know what storing sperm for later is called? I googled it and didnt see a nane, but i did see this snippet 

"Many other animals have been found to store sperm, including the domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). In 2011, researchers at North Carolina and Georgia State Universities found that the eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus) stored sperm for an exceptionally long period of time."

Delayed fertilization, I think

[openozy]

In the dog show world they used to say a b**** is ruined if it mated with a mongrel and would never produce purebred pups even if mated to a purebred at later seasons.I always thought this was bull but after hearing this?

[Duke Wellington]

On 9/11/2020 at 11:25 AM, Piney said:

Some reptiles, amphibians and female siblings do that under duress.........at least that's what she said..  

All species that produce eggs can do it including human females.

Chickens do it to lay eggs for your breakfast, and about 1 in 11 if allowed to develop naturally will develop into a viable chick. With human beings there is no scientific agreement (as it hasn`t been put to the test) but we have lost our evolutionary edge for self replication so they recon its a 1 in a billion chance.

Duress has nothing to do with it, its all about a lack of a male. 

[Stiff]

The virgin birth.

I knew it! Jesus is coming back as a reptile!

It has been written - "Praise the Lizard"

 

[Jaded1]

Frank Zappa approves...

[Duke Wellington]

Immaculate conception in human beings might be a leading cause of miscarriages rather then a guy getting a girl pregnant which then doesnt go to full term.

[Nnicolette]

Jesus wasnt a virgin birth sorry but pathogenesis can only bear females because the dna is completely duplicated without a second set of chromosomes.

[Duke Wellington]

3 minutes ago, Nnicolette said:

Jesus wasnt a virgin birth sorry but pathogenesis can only bear females because the dna is completely duplicated without a second set of chromosomes.

Good point, it only produces female offspring.

Mary has some explaining to do to her husband..... tut

[openozy]

13 hours ago, Cookie Monster said:

Chickens do it to lay eggs for your breakfast, and about 1 in 11 if allowed to develop naturally will develop into a viable chick

Is that a proven fact?So you are saying eggs from a battery hen system have the chance to produce live chicks if incubated?I've bred chickens all my life and never heard of this,not saying it's not true but if they have never mated it seems impossible.

[psyche101]

1 hour ago, openozy said:

Is that a proven fact?So you are saying eggs from a battery hen system have the chance to produce live chicks if incubated?I've bred chickens all my life and never heard of this,not saying it's not true but if they have never mated it seems impossible.

Not as far as I know. I'm calling BS there too. 

[Imaginarynumber1]

Immaculate Conception is the catholic dogma that Mary was born without original sin. It is not virgin birth.

Unless OP is saying that this python was born without Original Sin, which i could totally get behind as snakes are ****ing rad and the church is a bad joke.

Edited September 13, 2020 by Imaginarynumber1

[Piney]

6 hours ago, Imaginarynumber1 said:

Immaculate Conception is the catholic dogma that Mary was born without original sin. It is not virgin birth.

Which is laughable because in Jewish writings and folklore she was a "entertainer".  

[Imaginarynumber1]

2 hours ago, Piney said:

Which is laughable because in Jewish writings and folklore she was a "entertainer".  

She had like 6 kids before Jesus, right? Joseph. Craig. Steve, maybe.

I dunno. I don't bother with weird fan fiction. 

[Nnicolette]

13 hours ago, openozy said:

Is that a proven fact?So you are saying eggs from a battery hen system have the chance to produce live chicks if incubated?I've bred chickens all my life and never heard of this,not saying it's not true but if they have never mated it seems impossible.

The snippet i quoted from google claimed chickens are the most known example of sperm storers. Idk about the never having mated bit but i do remember my moms shock when our eggs had black eye spots (they were fertilized)  with no rooster left.

[Duke Wellington]

15 hours ago, openozy said:

Is that a proven fact? So you are saying eggs from a battery hen system have the chance to produce live chicks if incubated?I've bred chickens all my life and never heard of this,not saying it's not true but if they have never mated it seems impossible.

In chickens its about 1 in 11 unfertilised eggs which will produce an identical copy of the mother.

More eggs than 1 in 11 will start the process of turning into a chick but with most of them the chemistry goes wrong early on. So next time you spot a blood spot in one it will make you think.

Refrigerating eggs kills any chick in the early stages of development.

Edited September 13, 2020 by Cookie Monster

[openozy]

5 hours ago, Nnicolette said:

The snippet i quoted from google claimed chickens are the most known example of sperm storers. Idk about the never having mated bit but i do remember my moms shock when our eggs had black eye spots (they were fertilized)  with no rooster left.

I think they are blood spots from a blood vessel rupturing while the chicken is laying an egg.

[openozy]

4 hours ago, Cookie Monster said:

In chickens its about 1 in 11 unfertilised eggs which will produce an identical copy of the mother.

More eggs than 1 in 11 will start the process of turning into a chick but with most of them the chemistry goes wrong early on. So next time you spot a blood spot in one it will make you think.

Refrigerating eggs kills any chick in the early stages of development.

I'm still not sold on this idea,could you give a link or reference on this?The storing sperm idea is wild enough but I still don't believe chickens are aphids lol.

Edited September 13, 2020 by openozy

[Duke Wellington]

Why do I have to do the work when people have search engines of their own: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis#Birds

Confirmed in Turkeys, Chickens, and Pigeons, in that wiki.

Edited September 13, 2020 by Cookie Monster

[openozy]

5 hours ago, Cookie Monster said:

Why do I have to do the work when people have search engines of their own: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis#Birds

Confirmed in Turkeys, Chickens, and Pigeons, in that wiki.

I didn't know what to look under,that has amazed me,Ive only ever heard of insects doing this,thanks for sharing.