Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i posted a thread on july 11th about a ball python who laid eggs and was never exposed to a male. someone wrote back saying that they had read about a burmese pythons in a zoo in europe that did something similar? ...the babies were clones of the mom? does anybody know where i can find that article? i would like to show it to my vet. i appreciate any help. thanks
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0.1 arg. b/w tegu
1.1 het pieds
0.1 normal ball
0.1 southern painted turtle
0.1 crested gecko
1.0 hogg island boa
0.1 burmese python

I am not aware of where you can find that particular article, but I have heard the same thing in sharks. A female Hammerhead shark in an aquarium give birth to a baby shark. When DNA test was perform they found the offspring was an indentical match to the mother. I know this doesnt help but if you google it should pop up. There is a term for it and for the life off me a I cant think of is sorry.

canopymeg.com/PDFs/python_parthenogenesis-groot-2003.pdf
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

Herp Medicine does not equal a bottle of Baytril - Dr. Scott Stahl

Here's the zoo article:

cmbi.bjmu.edu.cn/news/0302/89.htm
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

Herp Medicine does not equal a bottle of Baytril - Dr. Scott Stahl

Hatching clones of the mother doesn't really seem like an evolutionary advantage...
Hatching males...makes sense.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

Female Parth doesn't seem like an evolutionary advantage at first, but it has been hugely successful in some species. The Desert Grassland Whiptail (Aspidoscelis uniparens) is strictly parthenogenic and it is spreading like wildfire throughout the deserts in the southwest.
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3.4 ball pythons
1.1 kingsnakes
0.1 crazy cat
?!.?! ASFs
1.0 husband

Theoretically the production of females via parthenogenesis is only possible if the offspring are identical clones of the mother. This is because of the sex chromosomal arrangement in Boids. Like birds, and many lizards, snakes possess the ZZ / ZW sex chromosomes. In this system females are the heterogametic sex (ZW), and males (ZZ). Now, if parthenogenesis occurs via automixis with terminal fusion, all offspring SHOULD be male (ZZ), as the WW chromosomal arrangement is considered none-viable (What this space for possibly some new data regarding this). Thus, in the form, the genetic data is basically halved, so the offspring all get one copy of each of the females genes, and this is then doubled. Through premeiotic doubling or central fusion the offspring can be cloines of the mother, and be females. This was documented in Burmese pythons, BUT, the offspring were neve shown to be viable to hatching as it was against zoo policy to allow eggs to incubate full term. Therefore, in the study of Grrot et al(2003) they documented the production of viable eggs, but not viable hatchlings.

Again, watch this space for a new paper I am currently writting regarding parthenogenesis in boids.

Warren
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Dr Warren Booth / Director USARK
North Carolina State University
Department of Entomology

thanks for the replies and thank you toshamc for the article links! i'll keep you guys updated.
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0.1 arg. b/w tegu
1.1 het pieds
0.1 normal ball
0.1 southern painted turtle
0.1 crested gecko
1.0 hogg island boa
0.1 burmese python

Did you ever find out if the eggs were even fertile? I have had adult corn snakes lay infertile eggs year after year.