Transgender

It's raining here now, and it will soon be midnight.. i love the rain, but it is not loud enough to hear right now.. i am three days without my psych meds, and i cried for an hour today, and don't know why..  i self medicated with bourbon earlier, it was the only way to stop the tears...

i am a retired transgender female, living in very old male body.. There isn't a choice.. i have never felt good about this body, but time, vanity and love of those closest to me make any change at this late date, out of the question.. i am who i am inside.. i only just recently listed myself as transgender at the hospital.. i had to fill out all these forms, and it asked the usual standard stuff except it also asked:    (   ) Male -  (   ) Female - ( X ) Transgender, so i thought seeing as they asked, i would answer it the way i felt was correct.. 


i also have now been diagnosed by four psych Doctors as having PTSD… of course there is also the depression…

Reading novels by Lesbian authors helps me stay sane… i have often said, "i'm a lesbian in disguise", of course having my meds would be of some help just now.. it wouldn't change how i feel regarding gender, but i wouldn't make me feel so down...

i had a very dear friend die a horrible death from cancer a few months ago.. Melissa was much braver than i.. She had such a sweet spirit.. .. i miss her.. 

i just don't know how to make it some days.. and the bad days seem to be, are, more frequent now with retirement.. i started sewing again yesterday, and did quite a bit today as well.. i quilt, make clothes and even sometimes dolls...

Naukishtae

How i see "Age" and "Life"

When we think of how old we are, we think of only this existence, as if this was the one and only life we have ever had, or ever will have… 

Life for so many is only once, and then.. the christian heaven, or hell.. nothingness.. something else… what then?.. Reincarnation? Hmmm… many years ago, i would have thought the christian way.. but then i had a few past life regressions.. don't ask for one, unless you are sure you want one.. ..

We were not all Cleopatra, or Joan of Arc… not all of us one of the very famous people who have gone on before.. and not all regressions are pleasant… some of mine are ok.. but the one's i remember with vivid clarity, were the some of the ones that ended violently.. an herbalist burned in Europe.. mutilated in the 1700's as a Shaman in North America.. there were ones that were good… guardian of children in South America.. a stone cutter in Egypt, South America, Easter Island.. and on, and on…  

i have been asked , "How do you know, that reincarnation is real?  That you have been here before.. For me it is simple.. how could i possibly know how to do the many and varied things that i can do, without ever being taught… no one taught me how to cut stone in this life.. no one taught me how to do beading for ceremonial use on garments or rattles.. no one taught me how to paint.. how to do the most intricate carvings.. some resembling the carvings of the Maori People.. it is simple.. i learned in past lives, and i remember on a sub-conscientious, and some times conscientious level……

i always have had the same Spirit Guides to teach and direct my path.. they have been with me since before this planet cooled, and became inhabitable.. their shapes have changed, but not who they represent.. Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit…… others have come to teach.. old friends who wander in and out of each life, to help me grow.. to help the higher self grow.. to become more than each part will ever be by itself.. it is combining all these lives, and the lessons learned that help us in the form of our higher self, become who we really are…

Each life is a class.. that we each take, as we regenerate, life after life, after life, until we have learned all there is to know along this path, and our higher self no longer has to have more classes at this level of conscientiousness, but can go and learn at a higher level somewhere else.

i frequently tell people that i am older than "time"…. i say this, because i think time is relative to where you are in the cosmos… and as growing and changing creatures, we are in a constant state of flux.. always to become more than we were…. and more than we are now………..

Health

Hi all, i am writing to report that my cognitive testing is completed and i scored above average to superior in all areas for someone my age.. So that is the good news.. i am still weak, and working on an incline bike at the gym to build up my stamina.. 

I am still just as odd as ever, but oh, i did get a diagnosis of PTSD.. so some of things remain the same.. we are having trouble finding a female psychiatrist for me to treat the PTSD, which comes from my childhood.. yes, it stays with you even when you get really old.. 

Now remember, i have had 15 plus years of therapy already.. but even with all of that i still have black or blank areas in my memory… there is good and bad in this, because i remember some things i would rather not, and you never know when a blank or black area of memory, will become clear, and come to the forefront of my memory… and this is not always a plus……

You may have noticed, that i said female psychiatrist, and not male.. well if you have followed me for any length of time, you will have noticed i do not think very highly of men.. everything is a p………g contest, i just can't handle it.. their attitude is so foreign to me.. their continued degradation of women.. pathetic.. their fear and stupidity regarding  gays and lesbians.. i just don't know how to tell you, how these attitudes make me angry...

i can only stand a very few men..  i have one follower who knows who he is and does not have these kinds of issues.. yes Alan.. i think you are so far above so many men.. anyway, i have to stop going in this direction because it tends to raise my blood pressure..

My internist feels my thyroid level is way off, and is causing some of my problems.. so we are adjusting it.. all in all, i am working toward a healthier me...

Just an Update on my Health

Just an update.. Still can't drive.. I saw the the Neurologist, he ran radioactive die tests in my brain.. he told me that I have had more than twenty minor TIA's, (small strokes}.. My internist told me it isn't as bad as it sounds, and will see me on the first of next month.. he said I have a problem with my vascular system in and around my brain..

Still feeling week, but am trying to get in some exercise, and will be able to drive in about a week.. being able to drive is the big thing, being trapped in the house, is not fun.. anyway thanks to all of you for prayers, and thoughts..

Where I'm At In Life, At Sixty-Six

This is very hard for me to write. But i need to do it, to face it, so i can move on. It is so much easier to help someone else, than to do something for myself. At sixty-six, and retired, my mind has awakened symptoms that have returned to pledge me now, and multiple other times throughout my life. 

From the time i was very young, and through my teens, i suffered mental, physical and sexual abuse. This should say it all regarding my mental state.. Some things i can not remember.. other things i forced myself to forget.. i still remember more than i want.. i went from one adoption home to another.. Rejected time after time.. i was beaten repeatedly while in these homes.. for things that their own children did. When i was finally adopted, i had tonsillitis and was suffering from malnutrition. i was told, that i was not adoptable because of my stuttering.. My childhood stuttering retunes when i become anxious… 

My adoptive father was vicious, and demeaning to the point that many a night i did not eat, because i could not eat and listen to him tell me what a disappointment and failure i was to him. The only time he was happy with me, was when i was a Christian minister, it didn't last. Neither did Christianity.. for me…

Nothing i ever did was good enough.. never enough.. i could never measure up.. for them it was all unreachable.. Epicurus said, " Nothing is ever enough for a man for whom enough is too little."

My adoptive mother once picked up a wooden garden chair, and broke it over my back from behind. They only adopted me because all their friends and relatives had children.. They thought they were looked down on and that there was something wrong with them, because they did not have children in the 1950's… i used to fantasize, when i was seven or eight, that my brother would ride up on his harley, and take me away from it all.. i don't have any idea how i knew he would some day ride a hog.. he was a year and a half younger than me...

If i did anything they disapproved of i would get this line over and over again.. it was like a mantra..  (Look at all We have given you…Where would you be now if we hadn't adopted you?) i expected to be thrown out of the house at any misstep.. as a teen, i cut the backs of my hands to relieve the stress of living.. of being property.. rather than belonging to a family...

The only reason i go on is that i believe that if i opt out, i will have to do every thing over again in my next life.. and try to pass the test that is happening in this life again.. Why would i want to go through this hell again? Plus i can't cause that kind of pain to my wife and children...

i have a lot of blank areas in my memory that i can not see. Some memory loss i believe is because my un-conscious  mind does not believe my conscious mind can handle it. When i do remember something, i try to share it with my therapy group.. but sometimes i can not. i am often screaming on the inside, and just a blank face on the outside.

Since i have retired (the last week of February), my startle response has gotten worse.. any loud (sharp) noise will make my heart  jump.. i have unwanted memories, that return to haunt me, that I would rather have not remembered. 

During my first marriage, i would wake up screaming several nights a week.. it was terrible for my first wife.. she never knew what would set me off.. Awakening after a nightmare i either feel emotionally numb, or my heart is going like a race horse.. i lose all interest in everything, and just sit on the end of the bed staring out the window, feeling trapped, looking, but not seeing.. from five minutes, to forty.. i just can't bring myself out and get going again.. other times i just sit there and cry….. my emotions are really over the top lately and i cry frequently… numbness to tears in seconds...

There have been many days i awakened feeling that i would not live to see another year, with not even a thought to the future, there is no future to see. i have to take medication to sleep, and stay asleep, or i just stare at the walls…

Some times for no reason, i will feel so distressed in a store, i have to leave because a feeling that the walls, the very air, is closing in on me… i get irritable and sometimes have outbursts of anger, and can not see the cause.

i am always in a state of what could be called hyper vigilance, always afraid something really bad is about to happen. i surround myself with edged weapons at home, and frequently carry a blade to protect myself from imagined events.. i used to carry guns, but i had to stop.. you can not walk a path of peace, and carry guns.. Sometimes the thought of  perceived danger weighs so heavy, that i can not leave the house.. other times there is such a feeling of absolute hopelessness that i can not find what good i am at all, what value?…

i have always felt alienated and alone, in school i was pushed down stairs from behind because i was different.. i never fit in..  i searched for blood family all my life. i found them, but the feeling did not go away… 

i have terrible feelings that i will be rejected by everyone, and have a lot of fear of being alone..  that no one really wants to be around me, or really know me… in 1949, my brother was taken away from me.. i never recovered, even after i found him 30 years later.. he was all i thought of all those years...

In February 2011 i had a seizure while driving to work.. i had to retire.. 

My sombre exterior puts people off.. i frighten them, some have even looked at me, crossed themselves and walked the other way.  

My Doctor said i am suffering from PTSD. 

What's up with Me....

Hi, everyone.. as you all know, I am not the best at making phone calls, and keeping up with family or friends.. I am sorry, I wish I could change that and do better…

So i decided to write all this down and that way let every one know what was going on in my life.. Ten days ago, a week ago this past Friday I had a seizure while driving to work.. I blacked out at the wheel, and knocked off the passenger side mirror.. then went up over a curb.. and then continued on to work, except I don't remember finishing my drive to work.. After I parked at work, I think I remember walking in the building, I don't remember my drive to work.. I went to my desk and I tried to sign in on my computer, by typing on the table instead of the keyboard.. I remember the AOD that I was relieving asked if I was alright.. then I went black again.. next thing I knew I was on a gurney in the back of the my own ER.. I woke up on the gurney, and my wife was sitting beside me in a chair.. I spent about 7 or 8 hours there, and had a CT (that I don't remember), and an MRI of my head (that I do remember some of).. I went to see my own doctor on Monday, and he thought I had a seizure while driving.. and then blacked out and then slept for a long time, because thats what happens when you have a seizure.. I have little or no memory of the events of that day.. I am not allowed to drive a car for at least 6 months.. I have to see a neurologist regarding epileptic seizures, as soon as they get the records from the VA..Until then, I am holding the house down, and have put in papers for para-transit vouchers so I can get around by cab.

Anyway.. my doctor has put me out, and I can not work anymore, and I was going to retire in March, so I am basically retired now.. I just have to go in and sign out with the department heads tomorrow, and I am done.

I do have an almost total blank space for Feb. 11th, and still have to see some more doctors.. but I am basically retired now and hopping I will not have any more seizures..

I wish all of you the best..

Naukishtae

In Dreams We See . . . .

I am not just another visitor to the highest observation deck of our city. But I am one who can be found here on a daily basis. I come here to observe, and to meditate.. to contemplate who we are as a people and to try to define where we are headed.

I come to greet the morning Sun, as my ancestors have for millennia.. Then I go to my own quarters three decks below the surrounding farm land and forests..to sleep.

I have never been a creature of the Sun, preferring the comfort and quiet of the night to think.. I have lived here for ninety turns around our Sun.. the Goddess has been very kind to me.. I may expect at least ninety more before I return to Our Mother..

My mate and I have decided that neither one of us was ever going to be with child.. although we still have at least twenty turns to do so if we change our minds.. but there are many children here.. it is not something we must do to advance our race, or make us more abundant.. populating the planet is not our goal, but living each life to the fullest, leaving as small a footprint on the Mother as possible…

As I stand here at the railing, I am always struck by the change of colors that come with the rise of the Sun as it pours across the land.. for me, it hits the tops of the forests first, waking all of our painted sisters that fly.. then across the farm lands of a distant city, then the city itself.. each of our cities is as a giant pyramid with flowers and plants flowing over the rails of each deck to the ground.. the colors as the Sun walks up the sides of the pyramids is so wonderful, it will take your breath away.

We are about twenty-five to thirty miles away from the next city.. and from the observation deck, can see many in the distance.. there are many areas that are only inhabited by the tribes.. the tribes care for the forests over the entire planet.. habitation is only allowed in the cities, and they are many and allow for many types of climate.. some enjoy heat, others prefer the sea, or the rivers.. and there is movement between them frequently. There are also many parks set aside and cared for by the tribes, so that those that live in the cities can walk beneath the trees.

to continue . . . .

Naukishtae

In Dreams We See....

I see a time coming in a near future after a millennia of war started by men.. when there are very few men.. As it was men, that started these wars.. and mostly men, who fought in these wars, the inhabitants of this place decided that if they had no men, they would have no wars.

This is not to say that all men disappeared from the face of the planet, they did not, but they dwindled down to a very small minority.  And of course the wars stopped.

The Scientific community was the first to become all women.  And then the political community  followed suit.

The Scientific community had a conference, and decided to do research on Parthenogenesis.  Virgin birth, is defined as reproduction without fertilization. It occurs naturally in some plant, reptile, shark, and insect species. It does not occur naturally in mammals, but like many other procedures of our day, it can now occur with the assistance of scientists.

In April 2004, Japanese scientists announced they created the first mammal by combining the nucleus of one female's egg with that of another. The female offspring survived to adulthood and now has babies of her own. It was the beginning.

With the absence of war.. society looked to a world of green.. encapsulated cities.. miles apart.. shaped like giant pyramids.. with farm land around each base, and reforestation that covered all the area between each..

Parthenogenesis became the rule, and peace, and growth excelled...

These cities (pyramid shaped) were many miles apart, connected by elevated trains, run on electricity created by the solar battery skin, covering these trains..

The ground was covered by rain forests.. regular humans were not allowed out in the forests, unless they were care takers.. the indigenous tribes of the planet took back the care of the planet, just as they had been charged with in the beginning of time… only they and the farmers could live on the land.. there were many parks for others.. but the majority of the land was returned to the Mother… and we thrived...

Parthenogenesis as the only way to save the Earth..

Before I tell you what I have seen in dreams, I want you to understand something that I have seen and felt would be comming now for many years. This is taken directly from Wikipedia..

Parthenogenesis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Parthenogenesis (from the Greek παρθένος parthenos, "virgin", + γένεσις genesis, "creation") is a form of asexual reproduction found in females, where growth and development of embryos occurs without fertilization by a male. In plants, parthenogenesis means development of an embryo from an unfertilized egg cell, and is a component process of apomixis. The offspring produced by parthenogenesis are always female in species that use the XY sex-determination system, and male in those that use the ZW sex-determination system.

Parthenogenesis occurs naturally in some invertebrate animal species (e.g. water fleas, aphids, nematodes, some bees, some Phasmida, some scorpion species, and parasitic wasps), and vertebrates (e.g. some reptiles, fish, and very rarely birds and sharks) and this type of reproduction has been induced artificially in other species.

The term is sometimes used inaccurately to describe reproduction modes in hermaphroditic species which can reproduce by themselves because they contain reproductive organs of both sexes.

Asexual reproduction

Parthenogenesis is seen to occur naturally in aphids, Daphnia, rotifers, nematodes and some other invertebrates, as well as in many plants. Komodo dragons and the hammerhead- and blacktip sharks have recently been added to the list of vertebrates—along with several genera of fish, amphibians, and reptiles—that exhibit differing forms of asexual reproduction, including true parthenogenesis, gynogenesis, and hybridogenesis (an incomplete form of parthenogenesis). As with all types of asexual reproduction, there are both costs (low genetic diversity and therefore susceptibility to adverse mutations that might occur) and benefits (reproduction without the need for a male) associated with parthenogenesis.

The offspring of parthenogenesis will be all female if two like chromosomes determine the female sex (such as the XY sex-determination system), but they will be male if two like chromosomes determine the male sex (such as the ZW sex-determination system), because the process involves the inheritance and subsequent duplication of only a single sex chromosome. The offspring may be capable of sexual reproduction, if this mode exists in the species. In many cases, parthenogenesis occurs when one gender (typically the male) is unavailable in the general vicinity. Once males are again available, the parthenogenesis-created females would be capable of mating with the males and creating normal offspring.

Parthenogenesis is distinct from artificial animal cloning, a process where the new organism is necessarily genetically identical to the cell donor. In cloning, the nucleus of a diploid cell from a donor organism is inserted into an enucleated egg cell and the cell is then stimulated to undergo continued mitosis, resulting in an organism that is genetically identical to the donor. Parthenogenesis is different, in that it originates from the genetic material contained within an egg cell. Egg cells may be produced via meiosis or mitosis oogenesis. If by mitosis, the egg that undergoes parthenogenesis can be either haploid or diploid, leading to a number of possible outcomes in terms of the genetic fingerprint of the parthenogen. A diploid parent organism that undergoes parthenogenesis via meiosis will create haploid offspring with a new genetic fingerprint due to crossing over of the chromosomes in the parent. Because there are so many variables in parthenogenesis, there is little that can be said for sure unless the specific methods of the particular parthenogenetic tendencies of an organism are known.

A litter of offspring resulting from parthenogenesis may contain genetically identical siblings. In organisms possessing an XY chromosome system, parthenogenic offspring are always female, but they are not necessarily genetically identical to one another or to their mother (some chromosome segments may differ because of meiosis).

Parthenogenesis may be achieved through an artificial process as described below under the discussion of mammals.

Alternation between parthenogenesis and sexual reproduction is called heterogamy. A form of reproduction related to parthenogenesis, but that only requires the presence of sperm that do not fertilize an egg, is known as gynogenesis. In hybridogenesis the sperm fertilizes the egg, but its chromosomes are not carried to subsequent generations.

Insects

Parthenogenesis in insects can cover a wide range of mechanisms.

The different forms include:

1. Thelytoky - parthenogenesis in which only female offspring are produced and no mating is observed
2. Pseudogamy (or gynogenesis or sperm-dependent parthenogenesis) - here mating occurs and the eggs require activation by entry of sperm but only the maternal chromosomes are expressed
3. Automixis - parthenogenesis in which the eggs underwent meiosis
4. Apomixis - parthenogenesis in which the eggs did not undergo meiosis

Polyembryony is another process that produces multiple clonal offspring from a single egg. This is known in some hymenopteran parasitoids and in Strepsiptera.

In automictic species the offspring can be haploid or diploid. Diploids are produced by doubling or fusion of gametes after meiosis. Fusion is seen in the Phasmatodea, Hemiptera (Aleurodids and Coccidae), Diptera, and some Hymenoptera.

In addition to these forms is hermaphroditism, where both the eggs and sperm are produced by the same individual, but is not a type of parthenogenesis. This is seen in three species of Icerya scale insects.

Parasitic bacteria like Wolbachia have been noted to induce automictic thelytoky in many insect species with haplodiploid systems. They also cause gamete duplication in unfertilized eggs causing them to develop into female offspring.

An example of non-viable parthenogenesis is common among domesticated honey bees. The queen bee is the only fertile female in the hive; if she dies without the possibility for a viable replacement queen, it is not uncommon for the worker bees to lay eggs. Worker bees are unable to mate, and the unfertilized eggs produce only drones (males), which can only mate with a queen. Thus, in a relatively short period, all the worker bees die off, and the new drones follow.

In one subspecies from South Africa, Apis mellifera capensis, workers are capable of producing diploid eggs parthenogenetically, and thus the queen can be replaced if she dies.

It is believed that a few other bees may be truly parthenogenetic, for example, at least one species of small carpenter bee, in the genus Ceratina. Many parasitic wasps are known to be parthenogenetic, sometimes due to infections by Wolbachia.

In Cataglyphis cursor, a European formicine ant, the queen can reproduce by parthenogenesis. The workers are fertile and can mate with the males in the colony.

In Central and South American electric ants (aka little fire ants), Wasmannia auropunctata, queens produce more queens through parthenogenesis. Sterile workers usually are produced from eggs fertilized by males. In some of the eggs fertilized by males, however, the fertilization can cause the female genetic material to be ablated from the zygote, in a process called ameiotic parthenogenesis. In this way, males pass on only their genes to become fertile male offspring. This is the first recognized example of an animal species where both females and males can reproduce clonally resulting in a complete separation of male and female gene pools.

Crustaceans

Crustacean reproduction varies both across and within species. The water flea Daphnia pulex alternates between sexual and parthenogenetic reproduction.[9] Among the better-known large decapod crustaceans, some crayfish reproduce by parthenogensis. "Marmorkrebs" are parthenogenetic crayfish that were discovered in the pet trade in the 1990s. Offspring are genetically identical to the parent, indicating it reproduces by apomixis. The Louisiana red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii), which normally reproduces sexually, has also been suggested to reproduce by parthenogenesis

Snails and flatworms

Parthenogenetic Thiarid snails have slender cone shaped shells^[citation needed^]. They live in muddy stream bottoms and feed on detritus and algae.

At least two species in the genus Dugesia, flatworms in the Turbellaria sub-division of the phylum Platyhelminthes, include polyploid individuals that reproduce by parthenogenesis.[13] Parthenogenesis requires mating, but the sperm does not contribute to the genetics of the offspring (parthenogenesis is pseudogamous). A complex cycle of matings between diploid sexual and polyploid parthenogenetic individuals produces new parthenogenetic lines.

Reptiles

Most reptiles reproduce sexually, but parthenogenesis has been observed to occur naturally in certain species of whiptails, geckos, rock lizards,[1] blindsnakes and Komodo dragons.

Parthenogenesis has been studied extensively in the New Mexico whiptail (genus Cnemidophorus), of which 15 species reproduce exclusively by parthenogenesis. These lizards live in the dry and sometimes harsh climate of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. All these asexual species appear to have arisen through the hybridization of two or three of the sexual species in the genus leading to polyploid individuals. The mechanism by which the mixing of chromosomes from two or three species can lead to parthenogenetic reproduction is unknown. Because multiple hybridization events can occur, individual parthenogenetic whiptail species can consist of multiple independent asexual lineages. Within lineages, there is very little genetic diversity, but different lineages may have quite different genotypes.

An interesting aspect to reproduction in these asexual lizards is that mating behaviors are still seen, although the populations are all female. One female plays the role played by the male in closely related species, and mounts the female that is about to lay eggs. This behaviour is due to the hormonal cycles of the females, which cause them to behave like males shortly after laying eggs, when levels of progesterone are high, and to take the female role in mating before laying eggs, when estrogen dominates. Lizards who act out the courtship ritual have greater fecundity than those kept in isolation, due to the increase in hormones that accompanies the mounting. So, although the populations lack males, they still require sexual behavioral stimuli for maximum reproductive success.

Recently, the Komodo dragon, which normally reproduces sexually, was found also to be able to reproduce asexually by parthenogenesis.  Because the genetics of sex determination in Komodo Dragons uses the ZW system (where ZW is female, ZZ is male, and WW is inviable) the offspring of this process will be ZZ (male) or WW (inviable), with no ZW females being born. A case has been documented of a Komodo Dragon switching back to sexual reproduction after a known parthenogenetic event.[16] It has been postulated that this gives an advantage to colonization of islands, where a single female could theoretically have male offspring asexually, then switch to sexual reproduction with them to maintain a higher level of genetic diversity than asexual reproduction alone can generate.

Parthenogenesis may also occur naturally when males and females are both present, which might explain why the wild Komodo dragon population is approximately 75 percent male.

Sharks

A bonnethead, a type of small hammerhead shark, was found to have produced a pup, born live on 14 December 2001 at Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska, in a tank containing three female hammerheads, but no males. The pup was thought to have been conceived through parthenogenic means. The shark pup was apparently killed by a stingray within days of birth. The investigation of the birth was conducted by the research team from Queen's University Belfast, Southeastern University in Florida, and Henry Doorly Zoo itself, and it was concluded after DNA testing that the reproduction was parthenogenic. The testing showed the female pup's DNA matched only one female who lived in the tank, and that no male DNA was present in the pup. The pup was not a twin or clone of her mother, but rather, contained only half of her mother's DNA ("automictic parthenogenesis"). This type of reproduction had been seen before in bony fish, but never in cartilaginous fish such as sharks, until this documentation.

In 2002, two white-spotted bamboo sharks were born at the Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit. They hatched 15 weeks after being laid. The births baffled experts as the mother shared an aquarium with only one other shark, which was female. The female bamboo sharks had laid eggs in the past. This is not unexpected, as many animals will lay eggs even if there is not a male to fertilize them. Normally, the eggs are assumed to be inviable and are discarded. This batch of eggs was left undisturbed by the curator as he had heard about the previous birth in 2001 in Nebraska and wanted to observe whether they would hatch.

Other possibilities had been considered for the birth of the Detroit bamboo sharks including thoughts that the sharks had been fertilized by a male and stored the sperm for a period of time (a phenomenon known as superfecundity), as well as the possibility that the Belle Isle bamboo shark is a hermaphrodite, harboring both male and female sex organs, and capable of fertilizing its own eggs, but that is not confirmed.

In 2008, a Hungarian aquarium had another case of parthenogenesis after its lone female shark produced a pup without ever having come into contact with a male shark. In the same year, a female Atlantic blacktip shark in Virginia reproduced via parthenogenesis.

On Friday, Oct. 10, 2008, Scientists confirmed the second case of a virgin birth in a shark. The Journal of Fish Biology reported a study in which scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male.

The repercussions of parthenogenesis in sharks, which fails to increase the genetic diversity of the offspring, is a matter of concern for shark experts, taking into consideration conservation management strategies for this species, particularly in areas where there may be a shortage of males due to fishing or environmental pressures. Although parthenogenesis may help females who cannot find mates, it does reduce genetic diversity.

Sharks have an XY sex-determination system, so they produce only female (XX) offspring by parthenogenesis. As a result, sharks cannot restore a depleted male population through parthenogenesis, so an all-female population must come in contact with an outside male before sexual reproduction resulting in males can occur.

Birds

More recently:There were early claims of parthenogenesis in birds but this can be attributed to non-scientific reasoning and motivation. According to one Giraldus Cambrensis, or Gerald of Wales, who along with Irish counterpart Conor O'Cathfai, wrote an account of the history and topography of Ireland following several visits in the latter part of the 12th century, the Barnacle goose reproduces without mating. Upon closer examination one realises that this classification means the bishops and religious men of Ireland may eat it without sin during periods of fasting. Since it is not the progeny of flesh, it cannot be considered flesh itself. This then was the reason for the classification and has no basis in fact.

According to Kathrin P. Lampert of the University of Bochum "...isolated cases of parthenogenetic development have been reported in all vertebrate groups. Facultative parthenogenesis in vertebrates has only been found in captive animals but might simply have been overlooked in natural populations. Even though its evolutionary impact is hard to determine and very likely varies depending on the ploidy restoration mechanisms and sex-determining mechanisms involved, facultative parthenogenesis is already discussed in conservation biology and medical research." 

Parthenogenesis occurs in turkeys through doubling of haploid cells, and the rate at which this occurs could be increased by selective breeding.[28] The offspring produced by parthenogenesis were healthy, and as doubled haploids they were homogametic, and consequently all were male.

Mammals

There are no known cases of naturally occurring mammalian parthenogenesis in the wild. However, in 1936 Gregory Goodwin Pincus reported successfully inducing parthenogenesis in a rabbit.

In April 2004, scientists at Tokyo University of Agriculture used parthenogenesis successfully to create a fatherless mouse.

It is highly doubtful that artificial human parthenogenesis would be used to reproduce humans due to technical concerns. Use of an electrical or chemical stimulus can produce the beginning of the process of parthenogenesis in the asexual development of viable offspring.

Induced parthenogenesis in mice and monkeys often results in abnormal development. This is because mammals have imprinted genetic regions, where either the maternal or paternal chromosome is inactivated in the offspring in order for development to proceed normally. A mammal created by parthenogenesis would thus have double doses of maternally imprinted genes and lack paternally imprinted genes, leading to developmental abnormalities. As a consequence, research on human parthenogenesis is focused on the production of embryonic stem cells for use in medical treatment, not as a reproductive strategy.

On June 26, 2007, International Stem Cell Corporation (ISCC), a California-based stem cell research company, announced that their lead scientist, Dr. Elena Revazova, and her research team were the first to intentionally create human stem cells from unfertilized human eggs using parthenogenesis.[29] The process may offer a way for creating stem cells that are genetically matched to a particular woman for the treatment of degenerative diseases which might affect her.

On August 2, 2007, after much independent investigation, it was revealed that discredited South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-Suk unknowingly produced the first human embryos resulting from parthenogenesis. Initially, Hwang claimed he and his team had extracted stem cells from cloned human embryos, a result later found to be fabricated. Further examination of the chromosomes of these cells show indicators of parthenogenesis in those extracted stem cells, similar to those found in the mice created by Tokyo scientists in 2004. Although Hwang deceived the world about being the first to create artificially cloned human embryos, he did contribute a major breakthrough to stem cell research by creating human embryos using parthenogenesis.

Although the truth about the results of Hwang's work was just discovered^[citation needed^], those embryos were created by him and his team before February 2004, making Hwang the first, unknowingly, to perform the process of parthenogenesis to create a human embryo and ultimately a human parthenogenetic stem cell line successfully. In 2006, a group of Italian researchers announced the same feat, but have yet to publish their results.

On December 18, 2007 Dr. Revazova and ISCC published an online article in the journal Cloning and Stem Cells illustrating a breakthrough in the use of parthenogenesis to produce human stem cells that are homozygous in the HLA region of DNA. These stem cells are called HLA homozygous parthenogenetic human stem cells (hpSC-Hhom) and have unique characteristics that would allow derivatives of these cells to be implanted into millions of people without immune rejection.[31] With proper selection of oocyte donors according to HLA haplotype, it is possible to generate a bank of cell lines whose tissue derivatives, collectively, could be MHC-matched with a significant number of individuals within the human population.

Oomycetes

Apomixis can apparently occur in Phytophthora[32], an Oomycete. Oospores derived after an experimental cross were germinated, and some of the progeny were genetically identical to one or other parent, which would imply that meiosis did not occur and the oospores developed by parthenogenesis.

Gynogenesis

A form of asexual reproduction related to parthenogenesis is gynogenesis. Here offspring are produced by the same mechanism as in parthenogenesis, but with the requirement that the egg merely be stimulated by the presence of sperm in order to develop. However, the sperm cell does not contribute any genetic material to the offspring. Since gynogenetic species are all female, activation of their eggs requires mating with males of a closely related species for the needed stimulus. Some salamanders of the genus Ambystoma are gynogenetic and appear to have been so for over a million years. It is believed^[who?^] that the success of those salamanders may be due to rare fertilization of eggs by males, introducing new material to the gene pool, which may result from perhaps only one mating out of a million.

Hybridogenesis

In hybridogenesis reproduction is not completely asexual, but instead hemiclonal: half the genome is passed intact to the next generation, while the other half is discarded. It occurs in some animals that are themselves hybrids between two different species.

Hybridogenetic females can mate with males of a "donor" species and both will contribute genetic material to the offspring. When each female offspring produces her own eggs, however, the eggs will contain no genetic material from her father (the donor), only the chromosomes from her own mother; the set of genes from the father is invariably discarded. This process continues, so that each generation is half (or hemi-) clonal on the mother's side and has half new genetic material from the father's side. This form of reproduction is seen in some live-bearing fish of the genus Poeciliopsis as well as in the waterfrog Rana esculenta.

A graphical representation of this can be seen through this link.

Automictic parthenogenesis

This is defined as reproduction resulting when one set of chromosomes (a gamete) acquired from the mother, combines with an exact copy of itself, which can be described as "half a clone". The animal still is unique and not a clone of its mother. In automictic parthenogenesis the individual offspring differ from one another and from their mother.

See also

• Apomixis for a similar process in plants
• Arrhenotoky
• Kaguya, a mouse created in 2004 by induced parthogenesis
• Komodo Dragon, virgin birth recorded in Komodo dragon
• Parthenocarpy plants with seedless fruit
• Thelytoky
• Virgin birth (mythology)

People

• Charles Bonnet conducted a series of experiments establishing what is now termed parthenogenesis in aphides or tree-lice
• Jacques Loeb was able to cause the eggs of sea urchins to begin embryonic development without sperm
• Gregory Goodwin Pincus experimented with parthenogenesis