14 DAY TRIAL // Virgin births are not exactly a novelty. Biblical tales aside, the fact of the matter is that quite a few instances of animals conceiving in the absence of a partner have been documented by the scientific community over the years.
The thing is that, of these peculiar occurrences, the majority involved animals living in captivity. Further, most of these animals were birds, reptiles and sharks.
In a new study in the science journal Current Biology, however, a team of researchers describe virgin births discovered in a population of smalltooth sawfish inhabiting an estuary in Florida, US.
This species of rays, made distinctive by their abnormally long rostrum carrying a whole lot of teeth, are currently in danger of going extinct as a result of habitat loss and overfishing.
Since the overall headcount for the species has dropped to a considerable extent in recent years, it might be that instances of female smalltooth sawfish reproducing without a boo are becoming more common as a survival mechanism.
Besides, wildlife researchers argue that this discovery hints that, contrary to the general view, virgin births in the wild and especially in vertebrate animals are not all that uncommon.
“Occasional parthenogenesis [the process of conceiving without a partner] may be much more routine in wild animal populations than we ever thought,” said Kevin Feldheim of the Pritzker Laboratory at the Field Museum of Chicago.
How virgin births were documented in sawfish in Florida
In their report in the journal Current Biology, the scientists who conducted this study explain that, as part of their investigation, they looked at the genetic makeup of several smalltooth sawfish they caught in the waters of the Florida estuary they focused on.
They found that, of the smalltooth sawfish specimens they studied, 3% were not the end result of old-fashioned reproduction. Instead, they were the offspring of single mothers.
It is believed that these rays were born after an egg produced by their mother had fused with a sister cell rather than a male gamete, Science Daily informs. Hence their unique genetic profile.
The researchers were quite surprised to find that, although not the love children of regular smalltooth sawfish couples, the specimens conceived via parthenogenesis displayed no anatomical abnormalities and were actually in perfect health condition.
Although rare and, therefore, of great importance for scientific research, the rays were not held captive. Rather, the specialists only tagged them and then released them back into the wild unharmed.
According to the scientists involved in this research project, this investigation marks the first time live and healthy offspring of virgin births have ever been found living in the wild alongside other normally conceived representatives of their species.
