'Husband-free' snake

US scientists discovered two female snakes that do not need males, the first evidence of a snake's reproductive nature in the natural environment.

Professor Warren Booth, a scientist at the University of Tulsa in the US, and colleagues colluded dozens of individuals with the pregnancies of two species of cobra and tiger fish in the United States to analyze their genes, BBC said. .

Of the 22 cobra, one conceived without the male sperm. The same phenomenon also occurs for one of the 37 fish cobra.

A snake gives birth to a child in the form of a virgin. (Photo: BBC)

"We are shocked because these are quite high rates. These figures show that it is very likely that 2.5% of cobra and 5% of cobra cobrids have been born thanks to a single reproductive form." , Booth said.

Reproduction of a single (or virgin) is the process of creating a baby from an egg without sperm. This type of reproduction is quite common in invertebrate animals like ants and bees. Biologists have always thought that reproductive sex is a rare phenomenon in the world of vertebrate animals, including snakes. This phenomenon was first discovered in chickens. A similar phenomenon was seen in snakes, sharks, lizards and birds. But all those animals live in captivity.

"In general, vertebrates in vertebrates are considered an evolutionary novelty," Booth said.

Female individuals of some species of lizards and geckos also reproduce monotonous, but this phenomenon occurs with the whole female species of the species. The snakes that Booth captured are capable of reproducing in two ways: sexuality and monotony. In the 90s it was recorded that snake behavior was in captivity. With Booth's discovery, the scientific community has the first evidence of snake virgins in the wild.