Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In reading the DNA paper that somebody referred to earlier, I found this:

"Molecular evidence for parthenogenesis has been observed in a study of captive Python molurus bivittatus in the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam (Groot et al., 2003) but has not been demonstrated in wild populations. In that study, comparisons of microsatellite and AFLP markers showed that a female who had been separated from males had offspring that were all genetically identical. "

Interesting stuff! I knew about parthenogenesis in a few other herp species, but I don't remember hearing of it in pythons before.

Has anyone here ever even been suspicious of parthenogenesis occurring in their animals?
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

When that Zoo burm story first came out there was a link that mentioned her type of parthenogenesis was a surprise in that the babies where genetic clones of here rather than half of her material doubled up as had apparently been seen before. The other kind produces only males as reportedly the ww combo isn't viable (snakes are like birds with females wz and males zz).

Seems like most years someone posts on the ball forum that the lone pet they have had for 10 years laid eggs. However, they never seem to have an incubator and most people tell them they are bad eggs and should be thrown out or must have been retained sperm. No one ever seems to come back and report hatching the eggs.

Too bad that European zoo policy didn't allow hatching the burms.

>>When that Zoo burm story first came out there was a link that mentioned her type of parthenogenesis was a surprise in that the babies where genetic clones of here rather than half of her material doubled up as had apparently been seen before. The other kind produces only males as reportedly the ww combo isn't viable (snakes are like birds with females wz and males zz).

Interesting stuff!
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

I do not believe it occurs in Burmese. Females laying infertile eggs a fairly common occurrence I think.
Environmental fluctuations (photoperiod, humidity, temperature, barometric pressure) and similar (other Python sp./ssp.) male pheromones near by (same room/same building) could induce ovulation.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

John, I believe I did read about Burms (a virgin) having the ability, but one has to be careful because sperm retention is viable for a couple years. I used to think lizards were the highest form for it to occur in (Racerunner female colonies are well known), but I can't remember where I read about the burms.

>>I do not believe it occurs in Burmese.

The paper that I quoted above was about burms.

Here's the reference:

GROOT, T. V. M., E. BRUINS, and J. A. J. BREEUWER. 2003. Molecular genetic evidence for parthenogenesis in the Burmese python, Python molurus bivittatus. Heredity. 90:130-135.
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

I understand the paper said the eggs were not incubated. Who's to say they were even fertile/viable?
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

>>I understand the paper said the eggs were not incubated. Who's to say they were even fertile/viable?
>>jsc

No, in that paper the snake actually had a litter of identical offspring.

From the DNA paper:

"Molecular evidence for parthenogenesis has been observed in a study of captive Python molurus bivittatus in the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam (Groot et al., 2003) but has not been demonstrated in wild populations. In that study, comparisons of microsatellite and AFLP markers showed that a female who had been separated from males had offspring that were all genetically identical."
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

AHH, the key wording is she had been seperated from the males. You probably do NOT know that many snakes store sperm sometimes for years and have live babies or ferile eggs but that does NOT make them parthenogenic. I know one record of a Trimeresurus albolabris adult female wc that had live babies for at least 7 years in captivity with no male ever introduced. This is NOT pathenogenesis just sperm storage which almost every mediocre herper is well aware of. Once more you are making decisions on what you are digging up in obscure papers that clearly are possibly inaccurate based on what you posted here. It's likely the authors are simply researchers and are not even aware snakes can store sperm so they thought if she could still produce after removal of males that it must be parthenogenesis. As I only know what you provided much of what I said here is based on assumptions because of wording of provided printed material. My speculation however is at least based on real life knowledge and not an obscure paper written by folks I have no background knowledge of...I'm only going to address any herp I use as an example by it's scientific name so at the very least you will learn something factual and pragmatic in your investigations. It's no trouble for me as I don't have to look them up...
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

>>AHH, the key wording is she had been seperated from the males. You probably do NOT know that many snakes store sperm sometimes for years and have live babies or ferile eggs but that does NOT make them parthenogenic.

Yes, I do know. But fertilized clutches do not have genetically identical babies. This litter was genetically identical.

>>Once more you are making decisions on what you are digging up in obscure papers that clearly are possibly inaccurate based on what you posted here.

Once again you are refusing to read what's actually written, in order that you might actually learn something new.
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

My respose could only be based on whay part was posted. The total abstract was not posted only part with key words that made me wonder. I'm not trying to win or lose just questioning the opinion as others do....It's not a win or lose thing but is interesting as many lizards are well known for parthenogenesis but few snakes...
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

>>My respose could only be based on whay part was posted. The total abstract was not posted only part with key words that made me wonder.

Perhaps next time you should try jumping to fewer conclusions, and try making fewer attacks in favor of asking more questions if you think insufficient evidence has been presented.....
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

Don't be so sensitive I'm just imitating you...LOL
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

>>Don't be so sensitive I'm just imitating you...LOL
>>-----
>>Tom Crutchfield
>>www.tomcrutchfield.com

Tom, I have not once attacked you personally, called you names, impugned your level of experience, or any of the other multiple slights you have committed against me. I am not sensitive and I'm used to being attacked -- I can handle the attacks, don't worry -- but don't kid yourself that you are "imitating" me when you attack me.
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

While that may technically true...you know you've been taking shots at him.

>>While that may technically true...you know you've been taking shots at him.

I attack claims and statements without apology. I rarely attack people.
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

"I attack claims and statements without apology. I rarely attack people."

Then this must be one of those rare instances. It seems to be obvious to everyone else.

>>"I attack claims and statements without apology. I rarely attack people."
>>
>>Then this must be one of those rare instances. It seems to be obvious to everyone else.

Show me this supposed attack.
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

I won't as long as you don't kid yourself about your real attacks thinly veiled as "corrections"..HAHAHA...LOL...Just relax and remember for every action comes a reaction...
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

There was NO jump to any conclusion only me reading what you posted and suggesting the results might be skewed because of a lack of knowledge by the authors and explaining why. You were thrown into the mix only because it's not likely you would know about "sperm retention" either. I'm likely right on that as you said nothing that would rule it out until you posted the entire abstract. I'm sorry you took that as an attack but what I did was very CLOSE to what you do to a lot of people including me. If the heat is too much perhaps the kitchen is not a place for you to hang out in...The entire post was questioning your post and the researchers conclusions...DEJA VU perhaps...LOL
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

>>There was NO jump to any conclusion only me reading what you posted and suggesting the results might be skewed because of a lack of knowledge by the authors and explaining why. You were thrown into the mix only because it's not likely you would know about "sperm retention" either. I'm likely right on that as you said nothing that would rule it out until you posted the entire abstract. I'm sorry you took that as an attack but what I did was very CLOSE to what you do to a lot of people including me. If the heat is too much perhaps the kitchen is not a place for you to hang out in...The entire post was questioning your post and the researchers conclusions...DEJA VU perhaps...LOL

Tom, your ongoing personal attacks are getting really really old. I have been ignoring most of them up to now, because they are usually just feeble attempts to distract from the points of the discussions when the debates aren't going your way. And I have not engaged in all the insult slinging myself, because I am good enough at using facts and logic that I don't need to insult my opponent in order to get my point across. Attempts at character assassination are known as the refuges of the weak.

I will not tell you here just how ridiculous your claims are that it's "not likely you would know about sperm retention", because then you would just accuse me of bragging. I am sorry that you are upset enough about being proven wrong yet again that you are resorting to more and more feeble gibes to make yourself feel better, but I can't say that I'm really all that surprised about it. Those attacks say a lot more about you than they do about me.

And now I'll go back to ignoring them.
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

It's not likely you know a personal attack either if you say that's one. Your continually admonishing me to learn more in various ways. Your suggestions that I not jump to conclusions etc. Your just being argumentive as your usual fare with me and others. I won't respond to you anymore providing you do the same BUT I wil not allow you to insult me with immpunity either. If I attacked you there would be no doubt in your mind. Believe me...
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Here's the complete abstract from the paper:

"Parthenogenesis among reptiles is rare. Only a few species have the ability to reproduce asexually. Most of these are obligate parthenogenetic species that consist (almost) entirely of females, which can reproduce solely through parthenogenesis. Rarer are sexual species that only sporadically reproduce through parthenogenesis. A female Python molurus bivittatus (Reptilia, Boidae) from the Artis Zoo, Amsterdam, produced eggs in five consecutive years that contained embryos while she was isolated from males. These eggs might be fertilized with stored sperm, or might be the product of parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesis has not been shown for the Boidae family before. We performed parentship analyses on the snake and seven of her embryos using microsatellites and AFLP. Four microsatellite loci developed for this species combined with three loci developed previously for different snake species revealed too little variation to discriminate between sperm retention and parthenogenesis. With AFLP we were able to confirm that the Artis Zoo female reproduced parthenogenetically. Because the offspring are genetically identical to their mother, whereas in previous studies on sporadic parthenogenesis in snakes a loss of genetic information was reported, we conclude that the meiotic pathways that produce the diploid egg cells are different."
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

I also understand the identical business [clones of one] but who's to say it wasn't...identical twins etc..
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Looks like Amazondoc wins this one. From the article.

"We performed parentship analyses on the snake and seven of her embryos using microsatellites and AFLP. Four microsatellite loci
developed for this species combined with three loci developed
previously for different snake species revealed too little
variation to discriminate between sperm retention and
parthenogenesis. With AFLP we were able to confirm that
the Artis Zoo female reproduced parthenogenetically."

There was no genetic contribution from a male, which there would have been even in identical twins.

>>Looks like Amazondoc wins this one. From the article.
>>
>>"We performed parentship analyses on the snake and seven of her embryos using microsatellites and AFLP. Four microsatellite loci
>>developed for this species combined with three loci developed
>>previously for different snake species revealed too little
>>variation to discriminate between sperm retention and
>>parthenogenesis. With AFLP we were able to confirm that
>>the Artis Zoo female reproduced parthenogenetically."
>>
>>There was no genetic contribution from a male, which there would have been even in identical twins.

Another useless tangent to distract from the real issue. If you guys want to cite things, how about citing the CONCLUSION OF THE DNA STUDY of the Everglades burms, which is the main thrust of these discussions:

"Sampling of mothers and offspring provided no evidence of parthenogenetic reproduction in ENP pythons."

http://www.usark.org/uploads/FloridaBurmGenetics.pdf

>>Another useless tangent to distract from the real issue. If you guys want to cite things, how about citing the CONCLUSION OF THE DNA STUDY of the Everglades burms, which is the main thrust of these discussions:
>>
>>"Sampling of mothers and offspring provided no evidence of parthenogenetic reproduction in ENP pythons."
>>
>>http://www.usark.org/uploads/FloridaBurmGenetics.pdf

I didn't post about parthenogenesis as having anything to do with the Everglades snakes. I posted it not as a distraction, but just because I thought it was interesting -- and it was related to pythons in general. I, for one, like to learn interesting things that I didn't know before.
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

Actually I agree with this post....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

>>
>>I didn't post about parthenogenesis as having anything to do with the Everglades snakes. I posted it not as a distraction, but just because I thought it was interesting -- and it was related to pythons in general. I, for one, like to learn interesting things that I didn't know before.
>>-----

Geez, I got confused between all the threads, thought I was responding to the thread about the Everglades burm DNA analysis. I guess this is a signal that it's time for me to take a break and do something constructive...

This whole thread is so convoluted I need a brain transplant BUT some good may come out of this soon...thanks
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Yes, but some of your posts can be confusing, as they do jump around a bit. You and Tom need to play nice, or Dad will have to tske your toys away

>>Yes, but some of your posts can be confusing, as they do jump around a bit.

Jeez, I made a new thread for it. What do you expect me to do -- post a big sign saying "THIS THREAD HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH EVERGLADES HYSTERIA"??

You guys really need to take a few deep cleansing breaths and lower your paranoia levels a bit. Believe it or not, NOT everything in a burmese python forum necessarily has to relate to the Everglades.
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

I'm not paranoid at anything.

One of the things that really bothered me when I first read this is that they stuck to their bureaucratic rules and didn't let the eggs hatch. Sure they did the testing that should have been conclusive that the eggs where viable clones of mom but seems like they should have tried to hatch a few in the name of science. Suppose we’ll need a lot more readily available genetic testing to see if this happens with any frequency in captive pythons. I’ve read that paternity tests are even available for some fish. Seems like a paternity test would be a useful tool for python breeders if inexpensive and could identify candidates for further testing if parthenogenesis is happening regularly.

Personally I've never seen it or heard any other breeder talk about it happening but who knows?
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Here’s a link to a YouTube video that features Carl Barden from Reptile Discovery Center in DeLand with a gorgeous leucistic water moccasin that was captive produced from a virgin captive produced snake. Definitely parthenogenesis produced this amazing snake. Doesn’t mean it is something that typically occurs in captivity or anywhere else, in fact it is extremely rare and noteworthy if you hear of it anywhere anytime. It’s exceptionally rare. I do think it is pretty uncool to bring this up with Burmese pythons when we are trying to combat the hysteria and misinformation out there, somebody has a definite agenda doing that on here.

If this link doesn’t work, just search YouTube for “Cotton Mouth Snakes and Snake Venom on Reptiles TV”.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYe38XYrsVo

I'm still skeptical. Sorry. Know I'll get bombarded with exceptions, but I always thought parthenogenesis occurred in viviparous reptiles of smaller body mass. That's just what comes to mind.
Sure would like to know what environmental factors induce parthenogenesis, other than no mate available.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

>>I do think it is pretty uncool to bring this up with Burmese pythons when we are trying to combat the hysteria and misinformation out there, somebody has a definite agenda doing that on here.

And here I thought this was a PYTHON forum -- not an Everglades Hysteria forum. Forgive me for thinking that a cool fact that I found about PYTHONS was an appropriate subject to post about on a PYTHON forum....
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

Ok, NOW you're getting touchy. Time for a few cleansing breaths for yourself. Maybe a mantra or two

>>Ok, NOW you're getting touchy. Time for a few cleansing breaths for yourself. Maybe a mantra or two

:-P

This forum needs better smileys.
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

Parthenogenesis in Burms, I first read that paper back around the time it first came out. I had heard about it and was fairly skeptical. I think the authors did a good job making their case. Parthenogenesis in snakes is unusual but what makes this exceptionally strange is the fact that burms are true egg layers. To the best of my knowledge, For the part parthenogenesis in snakes had only been recorded in "live" bearers. Rattlesnakes, water snakes, garters, I have heard story's about it occurring in boas but.............The most famous snake to exhibit the trait the Brahminy blindsnake is sort of in between.

The Burmese report has already been cited by the USGS and others a long (relative) time ago. " As a Burms in the glades issue , this paper is old hat. "

ERNIE EISON
WESTWOOD ACRES REPTILE FARM INC.

It's kind of funny you mention that because as I reading through this thread and reading Tom's comments about parthenogenesis being rare in snakes (which it is.) I was thinking I had heard something about some vipers having parthenogenic births and that was it.
He did a talk a few years back for cflhs and mentioned that birth. I believe Jim Peters made some references to a few other cases of this also involving vipers. It was a few years ago though so my memory is a bit hazy on it.

>>Seems like a paternity test would be a useful tool for python breeders if inexpensive and could identify candidates for further testing if parthenogenesis is happening regularly.

I seriously doubt that it happens very frequently.

One very cheap and easy first step to rule out parthenogenesis -- just look at the sex ratio in the litter. If there's any males in the litter, you know it wasn't parthenogenetic.
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

Actually the Burmese case of producing female offspring was noted as rare. I think more often it's been documented in snakes to produce only males.

Snakes are like birds and exactly opposite of mammals on gender determination. The female snake is zw and the male is zz. So it's the female that has the mixed chromosomes and determines the gender of the offspring with her contribution. Apparently most examples of parthenogenesis in snakes are like that leucistic water moccasin producing males. Not sure but thought I read that for that more common type half of the female's contribution gets doubled up to make a fully homozygous baby right down to the zz (the ww doubled ups don't survive as invalid). It could be that the mother water moccasin is heterozygous for a recessive white snake mutation and that male offspring also got two copies of that mutation doubled up. In the burm example somehow she made eggs that contained a clone of herself with both her halfs of every chromosome pair including the gender chromosomes so all female.

How rare this is we'll probably not know anytime soon because most everyone assumes it’s impossible or very rare and is not looking for it. It might even be no less rare in egg layers than livebearers it's just that most people assume the eggs with no apparent father are bad and throw them out. If by chance they do get properly incubated and hatch it would most likely be explained as retained sperm. Most everyone here is breeding so if you do happen to have a female you didn't pair this year you probably paired her sometime in the past and would expect that to be the source. The people this would likely happen to most would be lone pet owners who wouldn't have an incubator or experience on how to incubate. Without genetic testing there would only be unexpected morph situations that would have a chance to expose this (like if your male was a super pastel and you produced non pastel babies).

Doesn’t seem very likely that we’ll get down to a lone female Burmese in the Everglades anytime soon but I guess this could be an issue if that happens. Until then there is plenty of opportunity for regular reproduction in the one place in the US they can live.

Actually I think I know why the researchers considered the documented parthenogenesis in Burmese pythons.

I believe some insects have actually been eradicated by releasing huge numbers of sterile (from irradiation I think) lab grown males. Probably not practical to release sterile male Burms in the everglades but if the female could still produce fertile eggs it would not work anyway.

>>Actually the Burmese case of producing female offspring was noted as rare. I think more often it's been documented in snakes to produce only males.
>>
>>Snakes are like birds and exactly opposite of mammals on gender determination. The female snake is zw and the male is zz. So it's the female that has the mixed chromosomes and determines the gender of the offspring with her contribution. Apparently most examples of parthenogenesis in snakes are like that leucistic water moccasin producing males. Not sure but thought I read that for that more common type half of the female's contribution gets doubled up to make a fully homozygous baby right down to the zz (the ww doubled ups don't survive as invalid).

You're right, depending on the species and the mechanism involved it may or may not be an all-female litter. I think, though, that members of a species or a closely related species are likely to utilize the same mechanism as each other. In any case, it at least seems safe to say that a litter of mixed sexes is not a parthenogenetic one!
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (Arco, Olho)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (Coatl)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, Uce, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

I produced her, raised her, never had a male with her (and not one in my collection at the time) and she laid a clutch of viable looking eggs...some of the eggs were fertile and I hatched several females.

SATAN

>>In reading the DNA paper that somebody referred to earlier, I found this:
>>
>>"Molecular evidence for parthenogenesis has been observed in a study of captive Python molurus bivittatus in the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam (Groot et al., 2003) but has not been demonstrated in wild populations. In that study, comparisons of microsatellite and AFLP markers showed that a female who had been separated from males had offspring that were all genetically identical. "
>>
>>Interesting stuff! I knew about parthenogenesis in a few other herp species, but I don't remember hearing of it in pythons before.
>>
>>Has anyone here ever even been suspicious of parthenogenesis occurring in their animals?
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>>
>>0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
>>2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
>>0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
>>1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
>>2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
>>1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters
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"Satan™" is a registered trademark of NERD, Inc. Any copyright infringement is punishable by ETERNAL DAMNATION and some other terrible stuff.

>>I produced her, raised her, never had a male with her (and not one in my collection at the time) and she laid a clutch of viable looking eggs...some of the eggs were fertile and I hatched several females.
>>
>>
>>SATAN

Well, you're the Prince of Darkness. You probably fertilized them yourself.

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Sorry, I couldn't resist!

Seriously, that's very interesting. I don't suppose you've still got any of those offspring hanging around? It would be awfully interesting to contact the authors of that other paper and see if they wanted to do DNA analysis!
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (TBA)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

By now, Kevin would have sold them