“Life finds a way,” says fictional chaos theorist Ian Malcolm in “Jurassic Park.” What the mathematician describes in the film, namely that the exclusively female dinosaurs on the island will still reproduce, happened in January 2018 in a zoo in Costa Rica.
The female crocodile has laid several eggs there despite living alone in the enclosure for 16 years, according to the New York Times. In only one of the eggs, one of the offspring grew into a complete little crocodile, and it didn’t hatch alive either. Now scientists have completed their studies on this phenomenon.
So the little reptile was actually the result of parthenogenesis, a virgin birth as described in the Bible, and had genetic material only from the mother. Until now, researchers only knew about this phenomenon in the king cobra, the sawfish and the California condor.
Due to the close relationship between the crocodile and the dinosaurs, the spread of parthenogenesis is now also conceivable in this group. Nothing stands in the way of the plot of “Jurassic Park” (at least from a scientific point of view).
A virgin birth is preceded by a somewhat complicated process. Egg cells multiply in the uterus until the final product is formed. However, this one only has half of the required chromosomes. However, polar bodies are formed as a by-product during this process.
Normally these disintegrate relatively quickly. In parthenogenesis, on the other hand, the ovum and the polar body fuse to form the basis of the embryo. All the necessary components are supplied by the mother and fertilization is no longer necessary. Dear billionaires with secret dinosaur research islands, you have been officially warned. (lion)
Source: Blick
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