Posted by:
Paul Hollander
at Thu May 12 10:01:11 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Paul Hollander ]
If we were working with mammals, I would agree that a parthenogenic offspring would be female. But colubrid snakes have the bird pattern of sex chromosomes. Males have a pair of large Z chromosomes, and females have a large Z chromosome paired with a smaller W chromosome. So I would expect a male from the egg instead of a female.
If a butter comes out of the egg, it might be virgin birth, or it might be the luck of the draw. But if a caramel, amelanistic, or normal baby turns up, there was a male in there sometime. Good luck.
Paul Hollander
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