14 DAY TRIAL // Male guppies can father children from beyond the grave, a team of researchers has found. And no, that's not because they turn into zombies and rise from their tombs looking for love instead of brains.
Apparently, there is a perfectly reasonable and science-based explanation for why some males belonging to this species of fish become fathers at least 10 months after they died.
Wildlife researchers explain that, once the mating takes places, the female gets to choose whether it wants to have its eggs fertilized now or later, sources say.
If the female guppy decides that it wants to postpone maternity for a while, the male gametes are simply stored inside its body.
Their only job is to stay alive (and apparently they're pretty good at it) and fertilize the eggs when given the green light to do so.
More often than not, the female waits to get to a new habitat before giving birth to a new generation. This helps promote genetic diversity.
A detailed account of this investigation and its findings is made available to the public in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.