Was Jurassic Park Right All Along? I Crocodile Virgin Birth I Wild to Know

Terra Mater
Terra Mater
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Published 2023-06-30
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Parthenogenesis – virgin birth – isn’t just a myth created for the movies. In Costa Rica, a solitary female crocodile laid a clutch of unfertilized eggs – one of which contained a fully developed fetus. DNA proved it was her offspring. But with no male partner in sight, how did this happen?

Asexual reproduction does exist in the animal kingdom. Snakes, birds, insects, and sharks have all been known to do it. But this is the first virgin croc birth ever recorded, and scientists are studying it for clues about the real-life Jurassic Park. How can parthenogenesis benefit a species? And did dinosaurs also reproduce this way?

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🔗 Sources
[1] "Discovery of facultative parthenogenesis in a new world crocodile",
Warren Booth et al [2023]: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0…

[2] "Virgin Birth" in Endangered Zebra Shark", Shed Aquarium [2022|: www.sheddaquarium.org/about-shedd/press-releases/z… and abc7chicago.com/chicago-shedd-aquarium-zebra-shark…

"Virgin births from parthenogenesis: How females from some species can reproduce without males": umbc.edu/stories/virgin-births-from-parthenogenesi….

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#crocodile #jurassicpark #virginbirth #lifefindsaway #terramatters
All Comments (21)
  • @patrickbeach9156
    Cool video! Parthenogenesis is super interesting. However, this isn’t exactly what happened in Jurassic Park. The dinosaurs had incomplete genomes so the geneticists used other animal DNA to fill in the gaps. One of the animals used were frogs and Alan Grant hypothesized that they used frogs which can change sex after birth, or what’s called sequential hermaphroditism. Therefore, some of the female dinosaurs changed sex to become male in order to breed in an all female community. One of the most famous examples of this in real life are clownfish, a dominant male clownfish will change sex to female after the dominant female dies or leaves. This still means Ian Malcom was right though!
  • @GandalfTheTsaagan
    See also: parthenogenic condors, the first dinosaurs that have been confirmed to be able to reproduce asexually!
  • @StyracosaurusLux
    Didn't know crocodiles can also parthenogenesis just like komodo dragons. Interesting!
  • @MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou
    The sound effects in the background were extremely distracting. It's like I'm trying to follow a science lecture in the middle of a busy arcade or casino.
  • @blunzengrostl5899
    Oh holy mother Crocodile Mary be with us! XD Really interesting topic!
  • @abhay9577
    I wonder if critically endangered Gharials can do Parthenogenesis as it belongs to the order Crocodilia.
  • @riser7795
    is it just me or there are excessive sound effect & music used in the video to the extend that its jarring to the audience?
  • @alphatonic1481
    Never say never. We might be able to revive dinosaurs someday. I just hope we don't revive the carnivores.
  • @DecepticonScout
    I always believed what Ian Malcolm said. Life finds a way.
  • @jackschmit4696
    But we can find dinosaur DNA, in the amber we shall find insects that consumed dinosaur blood.
  • @TheMightyN
    Jurassic Park never was right about life's complexities for it preaches over the hubris of Man's dominance, controlling something unbounded to our will. Just cherry picking a rare phenomenon--manipulated by human intervention--with one set of birds or reptiles such as this Crocodile specimen only proves this fact. Henceforth, life is being forced to run through multiple steps to ensure the organism survives, whether if it's deemed "Natural" is completely artificial at the moment, and therein, field research is required. Parthenogenesis is the process of asexually reproducing to ensure the survival of a species or provide the organism with some nutrient--there's no indication from Jurassic Park's lore of these animals practicing this ability save for in the secondary franchise: Jurassic World. The Velociraptor (Blue) is able to reproduce through parthenogenesis this is because she is inherits D.N.A. from a Black-throated Monitor lizard. Though specific confirmations from the species aren't yet known, most research shows Parthenogenesis is fairly common within the Varanid lizards such as Monitors. But this is the only visible inclusion we see from the franchise and no other animals. In fact, it's the implication of this ability itself that contradicts Jurassic Park's own manipulation of Frog D.N.A. to fill the sequences in since some species of Frogs also are confirmed to reproduce asexually and even then the notion of non-avian dinosaurs naturally obtaining this survival tactic is something to talk about.