Immaculate Conception In a Boa Constrictor 478
crudmonkey writes "Researchers have discovered a biological shocker: female boa constrictors are capable of giving birth asexually. But the surprise doesn't end there. The study in Biology Letters found that boa babies produced through this asexual reproduction — also known as parthenogenesis — sport a chromosomal oddity that researchers thought was impossible in reptiles. While researchers admit that the female in the study may have been a genetic freak, they say the findings should press researchers to re-think reptile reproduction. Virgin birth among reptiles, especially primitive ones like boas, they argue may be far commoner than ever expected."
Wow (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
More interesting than the article is that I now know there is such a thing as a serpentarium. Everywhere I've lived, and in all the movies I've watched, they've just been called 'reptile zoo' or something similar.
I imagine people go into a serpentarium and the lights are low. Everyone sits down, reclines their seat back and stares upward. Then the lights come up to reveal thousands of serpents suspended from the ceiling, writhing around. People ooh and aah.
Sounds awesome.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I imagine people go into a serpentarium and the lights are low. Everyone sits down, reclines their seat back and stares upward. Then the lights come up to reveal thousands of serpents suspended from the ceiling, writhing around. People ooh and aah.
And the guy sitting under the spitting cobra just screams a lot.
Jurassic Park (Score:2)
Poor little baby snake (Score:2)
If i remember correctly, the last time this happened it didn't end well.
Incorrect title (Score:2, Informative)
Immaculate conception != virgin birth.
Immaculate Conception doesn't mean virgin birth (Score:5, Informative)
A lot of people make the mistake of equating "Immaculate Conception" to the virgin birth of Jesus. Actually, it refers to the birth of Mary (mother of Jesus) being born without Original Sin. What the author is referring to is the Annunciation, which is the virgin conception of Jesus within Mary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_Conception [wikipedia.org]
Re:Immaculate Conception doesn't mean virgin birth (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
A lot of people making that mistake includes the vast majority of Roman Catholics.
Immaculate Conception? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You mean the whole "Go Forth and Multiply" line?
I don't think he specified Asexually or not, or who knows, maybe he just wanted us to work on our Mad Minute Math skills.
And the chromosomal oddity is... (Score:5, Informative)
Firssst posss.... (Score:3, Funny)
Pedantic nit... (Score:5, Funny)
Asexual reproduction isn't the same as virgin birth.
For all we know, that snake is a slut.
Jurassic Park was right? (Score:2)
First Spielberg/Chrichton makes movie Raptors 6ft tall before they find real ones, now female lizards can spontaneously reproduce?
Someone should be asking those guys about their reality-altering machine.
-Matt
Not immaculate conception (Score:2, Informative)
I know this is a common misunderstanding but it is incorrect. I'm not Catholic, I've just been corrected about it in the past and thought I'd pass on the knowledge.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Snakes are probably the best candidate you can find, for an animal that does have it. A bit more deserving than newborns actually, don't you think?
That is so cool. (Score:4, Funny)
Chromosomal Oddity (Score:5, Informative)
Also direct links to the study are here [royalsocie...ishing.org] and here [royalsocie...ishing.org](pdf). The paper is "Evidence for viable, non-clonal but fatherless Boa constrictors" by Warren Booth, Daniel H. Johnson, Sharon Moore, Coby Schal, and Edward L. Vargo.
The Goldblum Paradox (Score:2)
Dr. Ian Malcolm: No, I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way.
I, for once,... (Score:2, Funny)
welcome our new immaculate boa overlords (or shall I say overladys?).
It's called parthenogenesis... (Score:2)
And it's actually fairly common in the insect world. Worker bees, for example, lay unfertilized eggs (which, as always, give birth to "drones," or male bees, the same as when the queen lays unfertilized eggs). But for bees, this is almost certainly a throwback to millions of years ago, before the current roles were set in stone -- as drones are incapable of fertilizing non-queens, and workers wouldn't be laying if there were any queens in residence. The modern day outcome is A Bad Day, though in years go
More info (Score:3, Informative)
A more thorough article (with better grammar) is available at BBC News. [bbc.co.uk]
Not just snakes (Score:2)
For what it's worth, immaculate conception isn't unheard of in humans: http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Abstract/1979/03001/Pregnancy_in_a_True_Hermaphrodite.14.aspx [lww.com]
Poor little snake (Score:2)
Last time this sort of thing happened, I remember it didn't end well for the fellow. What was his name?
Oh well. Good luck, baby snake.
Re:Poor little snake (Score:4, Funny)
> Last time this sort of thing happened, I remember it didn't end
> well for the fellow. What was his name?
I'm not really up on Christian doctrine, but from reading the rest of this discussion, I believe you are referring to Raptor Jesus.
Aha! (Score:2)
Yet more proof of creationism. Just look at the word parthenogenesis. It's got the word genesis right in it!
Not a Shocker (Score:2)
Not a Shocker (Score:2)
Virgin Boa Birth (Score:2)
Whaaaaaaaaat?
Makes founder events more likely. (Score:3, Interesting)
Interesting tidbit: The vast majority of known snake species are capable of swimming. Get a snake washed out to sea, let it drift between islands on flotsam, and with this mutation, a lone female is suddenly capable of being the foundation of a new population in a new ecosystem.
While not advantageous to individuals, this female-only birth trait would be a powerful force in mass extinction events, as it leads to a diverse set of multiply adaptive groups being formed, each specialized in a different direction for a different ecosystem niche. If a meteor equivalent hits, and all the rules of living change to some degree, you have a greater chance of having some in the right niche to survive.
The downside is if female-only births become too common, you stand a chance of losing genetic diversity in the smaller groups - so it being in the background like this, only occasionally popping up makes sense for a species that might have gained benefit from it in more ancient life cycles.
Ryan Fenton
What to name the baby (Score:2)
Commoner (Score:2)
Not Exactly a Shocker (Score:2)
Where's the fun in that? (Score:2)
Jurrassic Park anyone? (Score:2)
If anyone's thinking about cloning any dinosaurs, may this be a warning.
Not so immaculate after all.. (Score:2)
As the story's tag notes, the Immaculate conception refers to the conception of Mary, not Jesus. Next time, samzenpus, aim for the slightly higher hanging fruit when going for the cheap pun.
Not Hardly... or always... (Score:2)
The Immaculate Conception was the conception of _Mary_ conception so that she would not be burdened by Original Sin, leaving her a suitable vessel for her to carry The Christ Child. It's "Mary _of_ the Immaculate Conception, or _who_ _was_ immaculately conceived.
That isn't even my mythos, but it always amazes me how many people don't have the first clue about the facts of their own. Wasn't there a post here recently that said the people who know the least about faith are the faithful, or maybe it was that
Not a Shocker (Score:2)
Hmmm (Score:2)
Well that settles it. (Score:2)
Again! (Score:2)
Although science may gasp at immaculate conception in a snake Christians have it from an authoritative source that Virgin births in human females has happened at least once.
Damn you Goldblum (Score:2)
"genetic freak" (Score:2)
What this will look like in the future (Score:2)
Flamebait in the summary (Score:2)
1) virgin birth != immaculate conception
2) why the completely unnecessary religious reference? It looks like yet another attempt to insert flamebait in the summary.
Immaculate Conception was Mary, not Jesus (Score:2)
Immaculate Conception was Mary, not Jesus
Hire some Catholics (Score:2)
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception has nothing to do with the Virgin Birth of Christ. The Immaculate Conception was the conception of Mary without the taint of Original Sin.
Scientific Proof of the Bible! (Score:2)
Mary was a snake! It's obvious!
Flambait in the summary (Score:2)
1) immaculate conception != virgin birth
2) why have an unnecessary and irrelevant religious reference at all? It looks like an attempt to put flamebait in the summary (again).
Amazing failsafe (Score:2)
This is quite amazing.
Essentially if the female is unable to find any mate in this year's mating season, it still have the option to reproduce regardless. There is a penalty of having exactly the same genetic code, but I guess it is a much better option than dying without passing any genes at all.
At the same time if the male is available, she can make use of all the advantages of extra genotype permutations that comes with sexual reproduction. It really is a win-win!
This raises the question though: Since it
Gender homogeneity (Score:2)
What I wonder is what the significance of WW is versus ZW, since YY in human terms isn't viable.
I also have to wonder what good this is in nature if all such snakes can produce are female offspring. On at least the surface -- unless asexual reproduction is common -- this be a seemingly not-so-useful adaptation in terms of survival.
Old News? (Score:2)
Wasn't this part of the premise of Jurassic Park? Nature finds a way.
Inaccurate Headline. (Score:2)
In Catholic Theology, the Immaculate Conception doesn't refer to the Virgin Birth of Jesus, but to the conception of Mary without original sin.
I guess it's possible that these baby boa constrictors are especially sinless, but you probably won't be able to decide on that issue by reading Biology Letters.
Male Audience... (Score:2, Funny)
Old news? (Score:2)
I seem to recall reading about this many years ago. Not seeing anything on the web older than a few days though. As I recall it only happens under certain circumstances relating to the age of the snake and specific environmental factors including availability (or lack?) of food, temperature, humidity(?) etc.
Anybody else hear this before?
Not what Immaculate Conception refers to (Score:2)
Not Immaculate Conception (Score:2)
Immaculate Conception is a whole 'nother thing than parthenogenesis. Has everything to do with (not having) Original Sin, and nothing to do with the messiness of sex leading to conception.
All (Score:2)
Praise be to Boa Jesus!
That's what theyJurrasic Park (Score:2)
OMG..... (Score:2)
obligatory (Score:2)
Chaos theory at work, ladies and gents. You were warned.
Oh, the irony! (Score:2)
This is why I love science as much as I do: if not for science, we wouldn't have learned that real virgin birth happens in serpents.
Tumbleweeds. . . (Score:2)
Wow. I've never seen a story go dead like this on Slashdot.
Server problems, or just a boring story?
Surely somebody can come up with something witty and biblically snide. Snakes? Immaculate conceptions? I mean, come on!
I for one find the idea of snakes creepy, and self-replicating snakes even creepier. Brr.
Reptiles suck.
-FL
So Mary was a snake? (Score:2)
A sign of the apocalypse? (Score:2)
Not immaculate conception (Score:2)
That's virgin birth, not immaculate conception. Immaculate conception is what the story tells how Mary was born: no original sin. I'm not even Christian and this is clear to me.
WHAT kind of conception? (Score:2)
I believe the term you're looking for (and finally spit out in the last sentence) was "virgin birth." Immaculate conception is something else entirely. Specifically, it's the uniquely Catholic doctrine, developed as part of the cult of the Virgin Mary over the past 500 years (finalized only about 100 years ago), that Mary was conceived without sin. God put a kind of "sin shield" around the egg as it was being fertilized apparently, and so she was born without the taint of the original sin (i.e., "immacul
Well then... (Score:2)
Far more common? (Score:2)
This may sound like a grammar nit, but I found it really distracting to read "commoner" in the summary. Although "commoner" can technically be used as an adjective, it is strongly discouraged due to the potential for confusion with the noun "commoner" which in some sentence constructions can function as an adjective with a somewhat different meaning. For example:
"The commoner dress of the era was rags."
This can be read in two ways:
Census (Score:2)
Daphne dear, I think we should do an inventory of the terrarium.
It's a sign! (Score:2)
Raptor Jesus will return!
NOT immaculate conception! (Score:2)
Virgin birth != immaculate conception
Virgin birth = conceived without sex
immaculate conception - conceived (by sex!) without the taint of original sin
According to traditional (Catholic) Christian beliefs, Christ was born of a virgin, and MARY (not Christ) was born without the taint of original sin ... quite a few years earlier.
So the two terms refer to two totally distinct events: the immaculate conception occurred a generation before the virgin birth.
Maybe we evolved from them? (Score:2)
This is proof (Score:2)
So, this is proof that Mary was actually a Boa Constrictor?
Oh, and FP, I think.
Re: (Score:2)
LOL. Way to go, Slashdot. :-) I loaded the article, it showed 0 replies at -1, replied immediately, and there they are, 250+ comments.
Either Slashcode sucks big hairy donkey balls, or 250+ motherfuckers just jumped in to destroy my first fp try in about ten years. I'll go with the motherfucker theory because Perl code can never, ever fail.
Well duh (Score:2)
Immaculate Conception != virgin birth (Score:2)
I do not think it means what you think it means (Score:2)
Immaculate conception is not the same concept as virgin birth. If the original sin of Adam and Eve have tainted all births since Genesis, consider what the serpent's offspring have had to deal with.
To the religious minded it may be even more inconceivable that a snake be born without sin than without a father.
But what about humans? (Score:2)
Interesting implications if it turns out to be possible in humans too!
Commoner? (Score:2)
MORE COMMON (Score:2)
"Commoner" is somebody not of the gentry.
OTOH, cool story, half-clones. Almost like an egg cell divided and then recombined somehow.
Having seen this debated elsewhere already... (Score:2)
... This is absolutely fascinating. However, I suppose I might as well be the person to point out that while this is a virgin birth, it's not an "immaculate conception" [wikipedia.org] since that apparently has do with a Catholic doctrine regarding Mary being born free of original sin.
We now return you to your discussion of snake genetics.
Virgin birth, immaculate conception (Score:2)
immaculate conception != virgin birth (Score:2)
interesting and all, but the headline is nonsense. immaculate conception refers to Jesus' mother being herself born free of original sin.
The debate about whether Boas have original sin is theological and not biological.
So, the baby snakes are free of Original Sin? (Score:2)
The Immaculate Conception [wikipedia.org] refers to the birth of Mary (a child conceived without the taint of original sin). The Virgin Birth [wikipedia.org] refers to the birth of Jesus (a child born to a virgin). They are not at all the same thing. You are approximately the 6,696,844,874th person to get them confused.
For those wondering about the calculation:
6,697,254,041 - world population (from Google)
- 409,166 Catholic priests (source [thaindian.com])
- 1 (me)
---------------------
6,696,844,874
Virgin birth in humans (Score:2)
Considering what young females of our species tell their moms, virgin birth in humans is not a rare thing either.
David Ickes already gave me the heads up (Score:2)
He told me the Bible was all lizard people
Re: (Score:2)
Shocker indeed. (Score:2)
Very interesting (Score:2)
Extremely interesting. What the summary doesn't point out is that the boa had in fact mated with multiple males before this virgin birth, so in fact it could have used the traditional method too. I thought animals only did this when they had no access to sperm.
So... (Score:2)
Jesus was the snake all along?
So what you're saying is... (Score:2)
The son of God was actually born to a snake?
Obligatory... (Score:2)
Oh, I'm being eaten
By a boa constrictor,
A boa constrictor,
A boa constrictor,
I'm being eaten by a boa constrictor,
And I don't like it--one bit.
Well, what do you know?
It's nibblin' my toe.
Oh, gee,
It's up to my knee.
Oh my,
It's up to my thigh.
Oh, fiddle,
It's up to my middle.
Oh, heck,
It's up to my neck.
Oh, dread,
It's upmmmmmmmmmmffffffffff . . .
Shel Silverstein
commoner (Score:3, Funny)
"Commoner"?! - You mean "more common". I guess you'll tell me that 'commoner' sounds betterer....
Immaculate Conception? (Score:2)
I'm trying to understand what in TFA means that the snake was born without original sin. It's been a while since I read the Bible, but I seem to remember somewhere near the start that the snake was cast out of the garden of eden for being a bit of a git and had its legs removed. A snake without original sin would therefore have legs.
Can we just say asexual reproduction when we mean asexual reproduction, and leave misquoting the Bible to Christians please?
Snakes (Score:2)
I guess this explains why there are so many mothafuckin' snakes on this mothafuckin' plane.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I thought that referred to Jesus being born without sin rather than to Mary being a virgin.
Which is quite ironic given the part the snake plays in the garden of eden...