In January 2018, a female crocodile in a Costa Rican zoo laid a clutch of eggs. That was peculiar: She’d been living alone for 16 years.
In a plot twist familiar to anyone who has watched “Jurassic Park” an egg continued to mature in an incubator.
In this case, the egg eventually yielded a perfectly formed but stillborn baby crocodile.
While parthenogenesis has been identified in creatures as diverse as king cobras, sawfish and California condors, this is the first time it has been found in crocodiles.
And because of where crocodiles fall on the tree of life, it implies that pterosaurs and dinosaurs might also have been capable of such reproductive feats.
It’s possible that parthenogenesis gives a species the ability to survive extended periods when no mate is available.
In 2020, scientists discovered that lizards can mate and then lay clutches of eggs where some are normal offspring and some are parthenogens.
A doctor’s hunch says ‘It’s an ability that can be switched on or off, and it is perhaps controlled by a single gene’.
Read More Here: Scientists Discover a Virgin Birth in a Crocodile
