Virgin Birth?

Further reading on parthenogenesis in snakes:

http://snakesarelong.blogspot.com/2016_06_01_archive.html

and

http://snakesarelong.blogspot.com/20...1_archive.html

I have been researching parthenogenesis in my lab (https://www.booth-lab.org) for around 7 years. In contrast to what others might think (or say), it is actually very common in snakes. Our recent paper actually (https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/dfa18...7dba7306c5.pdf) reviews the many cases in snakes and from these we define two forms or classes of facultative parthenogenesis.

We have also reported the longest genetically confirmed case of sperm storage in any vertebrate (at over 5 years in an Eastern diamondback rattlesnake. Given the list of characteristics we outline in our paper, it is very easy to actually make an informed guess as to whether the eggs or babies result from parthenogenesis or sperm storage.

Thinking back to the BHB video. His retic was a tiger het for albino. The male it was bred paired to was an albino. The outcome from sexual reproduction is very simple

Normal het albino
Tiger het albino
Albino
Albino tiger.

Given that facultative parthenogenesis produces half clones of the mother due to the egg nucleus fusing with the second polar body, the outcome from that would be:

normal
super tiger
albino
albino super tiger

The key here is whether the babies were super tigers or not. If tigers, then it was not parthenogenesis.

He states that his eggs are tigers. As such, it cannot be parthenogenesis. I do not watch his videos (other than part of this one which i was directed), so I do not known if he ever followed up with these babies out of the eggs. But, if he states tiger and not super tiger, it is not parthenogenesis. Brian does not appear to understand parthenogenesis in snakes (that's cool as many do not). He mistakenly assumes the babies will be clones of the mother, which the will not in snakes other than the Brahminy Blind snake.

Warren