An 11-year-old python, which had no male contact for at least four-years, recently gave birth at a Kentucky zoo.
The python laid 61 eggs in June 2012, and scientists were working to figure out how the snake could produce offspring without sperm.
She was tested to see if she reproduced with stored-sperm, but tests falsified that hypothesis. During testing, scientists found that her DNA proved she was the sole parent to the baby pythons.
"I guess sometimes truth is stranger than fiction," Bill McMahon, Curator of Ectotherms at Louisville Zoo, tells National Geographic.
Warren Booth, leader in the study, said discovering that pythons are capable of reproducing with only one parent could help researchers learn more about the evolution of the reptile.
McMahon is forming a new hypothesis, speculating that her virgin birth could have been triggered by ideal living conditions.
"It takes a lot out of [pythons] to reproduce, and she had everything she needed. I had fed her a really big meal, 40 pounds of chicken. She was living in an exhibit larger than the typical size. There were heat pads. Everything was optimal," McMahon tells National Geographic.
Although the python was the only parent, only three of them reportedly look like her according to National Geographic.
The baby pythons don't have a long life expectancy, Booth explains to National Geographic, because they are "highly inbred."
