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A Brazilian rainbow boa constrictor kept at a school in England gave birth to 14 babies last ... so she appears to have undergone a natural process of asexual reproduction called parthenogenesis ...
Parthenogenesis is a mode of asexual reproduction in which offspring are produced by females without the genetic contribution of a male. Among all the sexual vertebrates, the only examples of true parthenogenesis, in which all-female populations reproduce without the involvement of males, are found in squamate reptiles (snakes and lizards). [1]
The rainbow boa is typically orange, brown, or reddish brown, with a paler belly and black markings: three parallel stripes on the head, rings down the back, and lateral blotches with a crescent over them, although there is a great deal of natural variation that may be heightened by artificial breeding.
Epicrates maurus is the smallest of the rainbow boas, reaching lengths of 3 to 5 feet on average, [3] although length varies by subspecies. For example, the most common subspecies in captivity is the Colombian rainbow boa (E. m. colombianus) grows to 5–6 feet long and matures between 4–6 years old. There is a clear sexual dimorphism between ...
A form of asexual reproduction related to parthenogenesis is gynogenesis. Here, offspring are produced by the same mechanism as in parthenogenesis, but with the requirement that the egg merely be stimulated by the presence of sperm in order to develop. However, the sperm cell does not contribute any genetic material to the offspring.
Reproduction in squamate reptiles is almost exclusively sexual. Males ordinarily have a ZZ pair of sex-determining chromosomes, and females a ZW pair. However, the Colombian Rainbow boa (Epicrates maurus) can also reproduce by facultative parthenogenesis, resulting in production of WW female progeny. [94]
Argentinian rainbow boa northern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia, western Paraguay: E. assisi: Machado, 1945 0 Caatinga rainbow boa Brazil E. cenchria T (Linnaeus, 1758) 4* Rainbow boa [2] French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina E. crassus (Cope, 1862) 0 Paraguayan rainbow boa
The Boidae, commonly known as boas or boids, [3] are a family of nonvenomous snakes primarily found in the Americas, as well as Africa, Europe, Asia, and some Pacific islands. Boas include some of the world's largest snakes, with the green anaconda of South America being the heaviest and second-longest snake known; in general, adults are medium ...