#BiologyLetters via @guardian | Scientists record first known ‘virgin birth’ in female crocodile in Costa Rica https://t.co/qij8QX8SWB
— Royal Society Publishing (@RSocPublishing) June 15, 2023
Well this is quite the development. Spielberg knew it all along.
A female crocodile that’s been living in captivity laid some eggs. Circle of life, baby crocs incoming! The only issue is that it’s been living by itself and hasn’t had any crocodile sex (below) in 16 years.
It laid 14 eggs and out of those, there was only one fully formed fetus but the DNA was a 99.9% match. For any of you genetics noobs out there, this would indicate that there was no daddy in this instance. If there was, there would be some of his DNA thrown in there too (croc cum).
Through a process called “facultative parthenogenesis”, this crocodile was essentially able to clone itself and produce eggs without fertilization. The facultative part of it basically means that this happened because of living conditions (captivity) or circumstances (zero sex) and this crocodile kind of just… adapted and developed the necessary tools to do the work of both genders. This hermaphroditic component has been seen in some animals before, like fish and frogs, but this is supposedly a first for crocodiles.
If you’ll recall, in Jurassic Park, it was suggested that some dinosaurs were also able to change things up and may have had both sets, if you will, by way of genetic mutation. It was originally supposed to be only female dinosaurs on the island to prevent breeding and they were being made in a lab so they could manipulate the DNA to ensure that. Nature took its course and they never considered the gender-flip potential. The dinosaurs on the island mutated into hermaphrodites and started havin’ babies anyway. Life endures and it’s actually a happy ending because they just get to live the rest of their dino lives on that island.
This is a wildly fascinating story and I’m glad dinosaurs are extinct, because it more or less confirms the theory presented in Jurassic Park.