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| Evolved |
 Posted: 24-08-2002 16:14 Post subject: Anaconda mysteriously gives birth |
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http://abc.net.au/news/justin/weekly/newsnat-24aug2002-25.htm
| Quote: | Anaconda, without a date in 26 years, mysteriously gives birth
Rafaela is 32-year-old anaconda that weighs 45 kilograms and recently bore three daughters, even though she has not had contact with a male for 26 years.
Biologists where Rafaela has been on display in a vivarium are puzzled as to the paternity of the snakes.
Scientists at the Department of Genetic Research at the National Cancer Institute in Rio de Janeiro have begun taking tissue samples from Rafaela, her babies and the boa constrictors.
The reptiles share the vivarium with Rafaela at the Life Sciences Institute of Brazil in Niteroi to the south of the State of Rio de Janeiro.
Rafaela laid 32 eggs, but only three survived.
They currently measure between 75 and 80 centimetres but full-grown anacondas grow to 10 metres.
They live their lives on the water for as much as 40 years.
Biologist Anibal Gimenez has three theories on Rafaela, who also laid 20 unfertilized eggs.
First, that Rafaela could have bred with one of the boas, an idea Mr Gimenez called "scientifically unlikely" since boas may look similar but are a separate species.
"Being of the same family would be like crossing a man with a monkey," Mr Gimenez said.
A second theory is that Rafaela could have mated before she was captured by the army in 1976 and may have conserved the sperm in a reservoir within her body.
"That hypothesis has already been proven among reptiles like serpents and rattlesnakes but never for such a long time," Mr Gimenez said.
Mr Gimenez said the final possibility, and most probable, is that the anaconda accomplished a rare parthenogenesis - a cellular division that forms an embryo without fertilization.
"Hormonal changes associated with aging can touch off this process, but we have no precedents in this species," Mr Gimenez said.
"Parthenogenesis is frequent among young scorpions and lizards who cannot find a male.
"The anaconda has performed an act of preservation of the species, a sort of self-cloning," he said, who is collecting the data for publication in an academic review.
The anaconda is the largest serpent among Brazilian fauna.
It survives on a diet of fish, birds and may even suffocate mammals.
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river_styx Chaos Magnet.
Pain Joined: 08 Feb 2002 Total posts: 2146 Location: Between Here aaaaaaand....There. Age: 35 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 24-08-2002 16:21 Post subject: |
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| It's the second coming of Christ.... |
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| Evolved |
| Posted: 24-08-2002 16:23 Post subject: |
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| No this is the second coming of Christ. Or atleast he thinks he is. |
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| river_styx Chaos Magnet.
Pain Joined: 08 Feb 2002 Total posts: 2146 Location: Between Here aaaaaaand....There. Age: 35 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 24-08-2002 16:28 Post subject: |
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| Evolved wrote: |
No this is the second coming of Christ. Or atleast he thinks he is. |
You mean it's not David Icke? |
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| FraterLibre Great Old One Joined: 27 Feb 2002 Total posts: 2236 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 24-08-2002 16:39 Post subject: Self-Cloning |
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Snake = Satan, so this is the FIRST coming of Satan, perhaps. Ask the xtians.
And politically, from a total control viewpoint, right wing fascists will have a cow over this self-cloning business -- if it's part of nature, they'll have to destroy nature as well, right?
Oh, forgot, they're already doing that. |
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| Evolved |
| Posted: 24-08-2002 17:03 Post subject: |
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The same thing happend to a shark not so long ago.
Fish = ? ... Noah? |
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| FraterLibre Great Old One Joined: 27 Feb 2002 Total posts: 2236 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 24-08-2002 17:13 Post subject: Yank Parlance |
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In Yank parlance, shark = lawyer.
The implications are appalling, aren't they? LOL Self-replicating lawyers?
AAaalaahhhhhhh |
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| liveinabin1 Great Old One Joined: 19 Oct 2001 Total posts: 2140 Location: insert witty comment here Gender: Female |
| Posted: 24-08-2002 17:56 Post subject: |
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Yes Evolved, it did happen with shark.
From what I remember the baby died at a few days old. |
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