pmk@prometheus.UUCP (Paul M Koloc) (12/18/86)
In article <10519@sun.uucp> falk@sun.uucp (Ed Falk) writes: >>> I read one author who, noting that many women have given birth without >>> ever apparently having had sex, thinks that virgin birth is possible in >>> humans. >>.. . .. As far as I know, the reason for this is not known; it works >>fine in many other organisms, and even occurs naturally in some (such as some >>lizards, which are near the same evolutionary path as mammals, although not as >>advanced (mammals evolved from reptiles)). >There is a method called "parthogenesis" in which an egg cell is produced with >a full complement of chromosomes (instead of just 23). The resulting child >would be a full genetic clone of the mother. >Biologists have figured that the odds of this happening spontaneously vary >from one in several hundred thousand to one in several hundred million. > .... .. ....... . they had one mother-daughter pair that >could not be told apart genetically. It doesn't *prove* that parthogenesis >occurred, but they couldn't find any other explanation. Unfertilized frog eggs can be "stimulated" to "clone" by merely pricking them with a needle. Turkey eggs can also be stimulated to "oogenesis" merely by "tumbling them" on the ground or by shaking them. The interesting thing is that the off spring from the eggs fertilized in this way are all "MALE". Turkeys belongs to a class of dinosaur??? Shake it baby, shake it. Copyright 1986 Paul M. Koloc +---------------------------------------------------------+--------+ | Paul M. Koloc, President: (301) 445-1075 | FUSION | | Prometheus II, Ltd.; College Park, MD 20740-0222 | this | | {mimsy | seismo}!prometheus!pmk; pmk@prometheus.UUCP | decade | +---------------------------------------------------------+--------+ #! rnews 3071 Rela