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Animals Natural Science

Immaculately conceived turkey

BBC Science article on parthenogenesis (virgin birth).

I’ve long-known about Komodo (and other reptile) parthenogenesis but didn’t know it occurred in birds:

Perhaps the best understood ‘virgin’ vertebrate is the common domesticated turkey. In the 1800s, reports started appearing of virgin births among chickens. Then researchers started studying similar events among turkeys, finding that these large fowl could lay unfertilised eggs that produced live young.

The baby turkeys were always male, however, which was put down to a quirk of bird genetics in which male sex chromosomes are dominant. Soon a parthenogenetic strain of the domestic turkey was developed in which most males appeared normal and reproduced successfully.

 

Categories
Animals

The most metal chicken in the world

ayamcemani

The Ayam Cemani is completely black:

black plumage with a greenish shine, black legs and toe nails, black beak and tongue, black comb and wattles, black meat and bones and even dark organs.

They’re also pretty pricey.