An Asian water dragon hatched from an egg at the Smithsonian National Zoo, and her keepers were shocked. Why? Her mother had never been with a male water dragon. Through genetic testing, zoo ...

Life found a way at Smithsonian’s National Zoo, where a female Asian water dragon at the Reptile Discovery Center underwent facultative parthenogenesis—that is, she reproduced and contributed a ...

Previous studies indicate that some populations of the little fire ant, Wasmannia auropunctata, display an unusual reproduction system polymorphism. Although some populations have a classical ...

When we talk of “single parents,” we refer to a family that has only a mother (or sometimes only a father) raising the offspring. But there’s another way to be a single parent — when an individual ...

Some female animals can reproduce without males through a process called parthenogenesis. Here are a few examples. Aphids: These tiny insects use parthenogenesis to produce live offspring quickly, ...

It usually takes two snakes — a female and a male — to make a litter of baby copperheads. But research now shows that copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix) and their venomous cousins cottonmouths ...

Last winter, two female Komodo dragons at separate zoos in England gave their keepers big surprises. With no contact from any male, each of the giant lizards laid a clutch of viable eggs, some of ...

The California condor is one of the rarest birds in the world, but now it seems that nature is giving it an unexpected leg-up. Scientists have discovered two condor chicks that were born from ...

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Of all the fascinating processes in nature, reproduction may be it's crowning achievement, and parthenogenesis is perhaps the most unusual and unique form. Translated from its Latin ...

Wild female pit vipers can reproduce without a male, suggesting that virgin births may take place in nature far more than before thought. Asexual reproduction is common among invertebrates — that is, ...