![]() “You're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will breed?" one of the Jurassic Park scientists in the movie incredulously asks Dr. If all that sounds familiar from somewhere, you might remember it was a plot line of the dinosaur movie " Jurassic Park." In fact, these babies do appear to be clones of their mom. Ultimately, they did confirm, this was parthenogenesis. ![]() It took several months for the New England Aquarium to get DNA testing back on these snakes. "So in that instance of parthenogenesis, her offspring won't be complete clones of herself, because even though it's just her DNA, she's configuring it and rearranging it in a different way," Tempesta explained. Other times, unfertilized eggs can be fused with other cells from the mother that aren't normally used for reproduction. "Some species simply clone themselves, so they duplicate their DNA, duplicate their cells, and all their offspring will be completely identical to themselves," she said. Tempesta said this is the second known case in green anacondas. “So in things like wasps, ants, aphids, you'll see parthenogenesis more frequently than you will in vertebrate species."īut it does sometimes happen in things like lizards and snakes, especially if they're in captivity and kept apart from males. "Parthenogenesis is more common in plants and in invertebrates,” said New England Aquarium senior biologist Sarah Tempesta. It’s called parthenogenesis, which translates literally to "virgin birth" from its Greek origin. Reproduction without a male is not unheard of. “They have black spots all along their dorsal side and their ventral side is more yellow and gray spots with a yellow line going down the middle." "So this this little, almost 5-month-old baby looks almost identical to an adult green anaconda,” she said. Babson reached into a terrarium and pulled one of the babies out. The mother anaconda had never encountered a male snake. All four of the adults that are in there are all confirmed females." Equally surprised because there were no males in the exhibit. “ definitely had no idea that we had a pregnant snake. There were actually 18 babies, each about two feet long, emerging from a 30-pound, 10-foot-long anaconda named Anna. “Tiny baby snake coming out a bigger one." "So it looks pretty much like you would imagine,” Babson said. Unlike most snake species, anacondas don't lay eggs. "One of the event staff walked by the tank and noticed that there were a bunch of little babies in the exhibit."īabson went to check it out, and sure enough, there they were. "I was cleaning up my tanks, getting everybody fed for the end of the day," she said. The South American snakes are among the biggest in the world.īut the arrival of these little ones took everyone by surprise: They were born in an exhibit that doesn't have any male snakes.īiologist Tori Babson takes care of all kinds of animals at the New England Aquarium, and says things got especially interesting there late one afternoon in January. There are some new additions to the wildlife community inside Boston's New England Aquarium: two baby anacondas.
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