What is Christmas for you? A day of endless parties? mountains of food? Santa Claus? snow? gift-giving? Ah, the holidays have taken on several meanings. However, strip it all of the capitalist touch, and you’re left with what it actually is: a remembrance of Mary’s virgin birth of Jesus Christ. Whether it’s true or not is for others to debate about, but do you know that virgin births do, in fact, occur in nature? Yes, dear readers. Sometimes men can be left out of the equation.

The scientific term is parthenogenesis. Wikipedia describes it as “an asexual form of reproduction found in females where growth and development of an embryo or seed occurs without fertilization by males.” Parthenogenesis occurs naturally in some species, including most lower plants, invertebrates (some bees, scorpion and wasps), and vertebrates (some reptiles, fish, birds and sharks). This type of reproduction has also been induced artificially in other species, such as in mice and monkeys.

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