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Virgin births really happen - here are the animals that prove it

Lydia RamseySep 12, 2015, 20:30 IST

A child touches her pregnant mother's stomach at the last stages of her pregnancy in BordeauxThomson Reuters

Yes, you read that right.

Virgin birth is a thing, and it's been happening for millennia in some animals.

It's something called parthenogenesis, which basically just means reproduction without fertilization. The mother provides both sets of the DNA necessary to create an embryo, which is typically female.

Here are the animals that are capable of having offspring that's genetically all theirs.