FaunaClassifieds - View Single Post - Giving birth after 6 years from a male...
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Old 09-06-2011, 01:41 PM   #29
waddlecaudle
Hey just wanted to actually update you (this interested me so I had to look further into it). I talked to a geneticist here at Colorado State that also happened to be an avid reptile lover. He told me that with reptiles, the genes can shift or become abnormal fairly easily when compared to that of mammals. However, it is still a 90%+ chance that if they are asexual reproductions they would be identical not only to each other but to their mothers. He did say, however, that the fact one had a bad eye could mean either that their was an error in replication during the asexual DNA encoding (could happen), that it is actually a poorly formed twin of the other with a few genetic morphs (very unlikely), but that likely it was somehow sperm that had been stored. He said that he has heard of some snakes going upwards of 4 years in captivity, so 6 is possible though extremely impressive (and even made a joke/hint at calling Guinness too haha). This leans more towards my thinking. Genetics are pretty specific and in asexual reproduction to get one morph from the parent gene is uncommon enough, but to have two snakes that don't look 95% identical at least tells me there was another parent in there. In all honesty, that is more impressive to me than parthenogenesis... 6 years is a loooong time.