The first case of a crocodile getting pregnant on her own has been recorded at the Parque Reptilandia Zoo in Costa Rica, BBC reports.
The 18-year-old female American crocodile produced a fetus that was 99.9% genetically identical to herself, confirming that it had no father.
The fetus inside the egg was fully formed but stillborn and so did not hatch.
“Virgin birth,” known scientifically as parthenogenesis, has been found in species of birds, fish and other reptiles, but never before in crocodiles.