A female anteater left zoologists at a Connecticut conservation center baffled after unexpectedly giving birth more than a year and a half after being separated from her mate.
Officials at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center said they had removed the only male anteater from the enclosure in August, long before the six-month gestation period for baby Archie would have begun.
However, the mystery of how Armani the anteater eventually conceived has finally been revealed as 'embryonic diapause' .
It's not virgin birth in the strict sense of the phrase, however embryonic diapause happens when a mother puts a fertilized egg on hold in her uterus.
The process has never been observed in an anteater, however it has been documented in armadillos.
Some scientific papers have mentioned the scenario in which an animal's body pauses a pregnancy until environmental conditions are right.
Officials at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center said they had removed the only male anteater from the enclosure in August, long before the six-month gestation period for baby Archie would have begun.
However, the mystery of how Armani the anteater eventually conceived has finally been revealed as 'embryonic diapause' .
It's not virgin birth in the strict sense of the phrase, however embryonic diapause happens when a mother puts a fertilized egg on hold in her uterus.
The process has never been observed in an anteater, however it has been documented in armadillos.
Some scientific papers have mentioned the scenario in which an animal's body pauses a pregnancy until environmental conditions are right.
Interesting
