Virgin births are rightly met with curiosity and awe, but
for some, ‘miraculous’ beginnings have met with ill-fated ends. Producing a virgin birth is difficult process.
The first part – ignoring males – is easy. But the mother’s body then has
to subvert the egg-making process, tricking developing eggs to think they’ve
been fertilised. Without fresh genetic
material, developing embryos can suffer the effects of inbreeding, so most don’t
survive. Which makes it such a shame that when they do, they have sometimes met
with premature endings. Here are my Top 5 Unlucky Deaths for Virgin Births….
At 5: Griller killer
 |
| Leiolepis triploida is an all-female, asexually reproducing species (courtesy of Jesse Grismer) |
In 2010, reptile scientist Ngo Van Tri, spotted what he
thought was a new all-female species of lizard – in the tanks of rural
Vietnamese diners. Excited, he contacted US herpetologists Lee and
Jesse Grismer who jumped on a plane to Hanoi, then completed a perilous two-day
motorcycle trip to the restaurant where the owner had promised to save sixty
lizards on their behalf. Save them he did, but grilled them first. When the duo
arrived, the crispy creatures were being shared with customers.
Undeterred, the Grismers and Van Tri enlisted the help of
local children to catch new specimens, subsequently confirming the lizard, Leiolepis
ngovantrii, a new female-only species that reproduces by parthenogenesis – where eggs develop
without fertilisation. Jess Grismer, who
works at the University of Kansas, admits he did succumb to a taste test but
won’t be eating them again in a hurry. “They tasted horrible,” he said.
At 4: The Deathray
 |
| (Image: Henry Doorly Zoo) |
Just over a decade ago, aquarists at Nebraska’s Henry Doorly
Zoo noticed something unusual. A baby bonnethead shark (Sphyrna tiburo) had appeared overnight in one of
their tanks. The tank housed three female sharks but no males. The females had
been caught young, before they were sexually mature and genetic tests confirmed
that the baby had a mother but no father. “It was the first confirmed virgin birthin sharks,” says Demian Chapman of Stonybrook University in New York who
paternity tested the pup.
Unfortunately we’ll never know if the shark would have grown
up and reproduced normally, as it was killed a few days after its birth by a grumpy
stingray that didn’t feel like sharing its tank. But it alerted aquarists to
watch out for virgin births, and to date, the phenomenon has been confirmed in
three additional shark species.
At 3: Canine calamity
 |
| (Image: SliceofChic) |
Ironic that turkeys, the birds most frequently eaten to celebrate
the world’s most famous virgin birth, can themselves produce virgin births. In
the 1950s, researchers at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in
Maryland noticed that unfertilised eggs from Beltsville Small White turkeys
sometimes began to develop on their own. The discovery marked the beginning of
a selective breeding program, aiming to increase the frequency of
parthenogenesis in turkeys. Lead researcher, Dr M. W. Olsen carefully
transferred the first turkey virgin birth from the research farm to his
basement for safekeeping…. but shortly after it was attacked and killed by his
dog.
Undeterred, Olsen continued his breeding experiments,
creating a parthenogenetic-prone strain of turkey. Female turkeys, which carry
mixed sex chromosomes, produce only male virgin births. Anecdotal reports of
virgin births in quails and chickens have since been noted, but turkeys remain
the only confirmed bird species capable of parthenogenesis.
At 2: Death by diner
 |
| (White-spotted bamboo shark at Newport Aquarium) |
Some sharks give birth to live young, others lay egg cases.
One female white-spotted bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium
plagiosum), caught whilst young and housed without males, laid many egg cases
during her 6 years in captivity, but they were presumed infertile and discarded.
Then keepers at Detroit’s Belle Isle Aquarium heard about the bonnethead virgin
birth, and decided to keep the eggs to see what happened. In 2002, 3 sharks
emerged from 9 eggs, of which 2 survived and were confirmed bona fide virgin births.
We know the shark duo survived for at least 5 years, until the aquarium closed and its inhabitants were rehomed. Ominously, the sharks were
sold to a seafood restaurant, where they were put on display. But over time,
their whereabouts were lost. “No one knows what happened to them,” says shark
geneticist Demian Chapman. A loss to science, their legacy remains – their
debut proved that female sharks can produce multiple, viable offspring through
parthenogenesis.
At 1: A Cross Ending
 |
| Christ the Pantocrator by Metropolitcan Jovan Zograf (1384) |
Surely the most famous virgin birth is that of bearded miracle-worker, Jesus of Nazareth. Reports suggest that baby Jesus had a mother, called Mary, but that his father was a supreme metaphysical being called God.
Unlike the Vietnamese lizards, the only grilling Jesus got was at
the hands of Pontius Pilate; shortly before he was nailed to a big cross and
died. In the absence of any DNA samples from Jesus, scientists have been unable
to perform the genetic tests necessary to verify his virgin birth status.
Virgin births have been genetically confirmed in many different species including certain sharks, snakes, komodo dragons and turkeys. There are also many female-only strains of fish, lizard and frog. If you'd like to find out more, have a look at my long read, Clone alone: Who Needs Sex.
