Researchers have discovered a case where a crocodile managed to lay a fetus without a partner.
A rare case has been revealed in Costa Rica where a female crocodile has laid an egg virginally, i.e. without the help of a male crocodile.
The egg was laid by an 18-year-old American crocodile in a Costa Rican zoo back in January 2018. The fetus inside was fully developed, but dead, so it didn’t hatch.
The crocodile was acquired in the zoo at the age of 2 and was kept apart from its peers throughout its life. The female laid a total of 14 eggs in January 2018, of which the zoo employees recovered seven and incubated them artificially. None of the eggs hatched, but workers found a fully developed baby crocodile in one egg.
Zoo workers contacted US researchers who specialize in virgin births. Virgin birth is scientifically known as parthenogenesis.
– It is not unusual for captive reptiles to lay multiple eggs, but because they are isolated from their mates, they are usually considered non-viable and discarded. These findings therefore suggest that the potential viability of eggs should be assessed when males are absent, the researchers state in their research publication.
The researchers found that the crocodile fetus was genetically 99.9 percent identical to its mother. This confirmed that it had no father.
According to the researchers, this is the first time that a virgin birth has been observed in a crocodile.