Babies without Sex

Immaculate conception in snakes? Such a thing exists, now.

Immaculate conception in snakes? Such a thing exists, now.

Scientists from North Carolina State University were stunned when they found that a boa constrictor had given birth twice without mating with a male. The litter of all-female snakes born to the mother showed no genetic fingerprints of any male involvement in the reproductive process. What truly puzzled the scientists was that the mother had previously mated with a male and given birth the ‘normal way’. The study, published in Biology Letters, explains how male snake cells have two Z chromosomes, while female snake cells have a Z and W chromosome. The snakes in this litter had WW chromosomes, a new occurrence. Researcher Dr Warren Booth said: “This is the first time asexual reproduction, known in the scientific world as parthenogenesis, has been attributed to boa constrictors.” Swallow that!