Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Link originally posted in rec.pets.herp
http://www.rnw.nl/science/html/030224snake.html

If you click on the link down at the bottom that says 'parthenogenesis explained'... it goes against what the article says about these being the only natural clone snakes... Flowerpot snakes (Brahminy blindsnakes) do it all the time. And so can Timber rattlers, at least in one instance. I saw that snake on TV once.
But if rattlers can do it... and pythons can do it... Maybe it's more widespread than we think. Maybe some cases of sperm storage are really parthenogenesis. Maybe some young in any litter could have never gotten fertilized by a male and be 'natural clones' instead. Maybe very careful records of breeding simple recessive traits over several generations could reveal instances of this... If burms can do it, there's no reason to think it couldn't happen in balls!

No, timber rattlers don't produce clones, because the parthenogenetic offspring are all males. Furthermore, it's a case of automictic parthenogenesis, wherein the egg basically fertizes itself, and half the genetic information from the mother is lost.

Blind snakes may produce true clones, I think.

I must have read it too quick... goes to show what I get for trying to make posts right afer work . Flowerpot snakes ARE all females though.