Read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/hdy200983
TIL about unisexual mole salamanders which are an all-female complex of salamanders that ‘steal’ sperm from up to five different species of salamanders in the genus Ambystoma and recombine it to produce female hybrid offspring. This method of reproduction is called kleptogenesis.
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The mourning geckos of my user name use parthenogenesis to reproduce. I thought that was crazy enough but kleptogenesis is blowing my mind.
They can also just use the stolen sperm to stimulate the production of fertile (but unfertilized) eggs, producing genetically cloned offspring.
[Here](https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=52728) is a slightly easier to read but less thorough write up of what these salamanders do.
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i’m blown away, i thought this was only possible by mad science.