Researchers have found the first case of a crocodile who made herself pregnant.
Science correspondentShe produced a foetus that was 99.9% genetically identical to herself.
The scientists say the trait might be inherited from an evolutionary ancestor, so dinosaurs might also have been capable of self-reproduction. The crocodile who laid the egg was obtained when she was two years old and was kept apart from other crocodiles for its entire life. Because of this, the park's scientific team contacted a US team from Virginia Polytechnic, which specialised in virgin births, known scientifically as parthenogenesis.
"It is not uncommon for captive reptiles to lay clutches of eggs, given the period of isolation from mates, these would normally be considered non-viable and discarded. These findings therefore suggest that eggs should be assessed for potential viability when males are absent," the scientists say in their research paper.
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