


Androgenesis? One albino in clutch of 22 eggs
Information on this clutch, I think I may have a better explanation than extreme statistical bad luck.
After doing some reading, I came across a section in Warren Booth's/Nick Mutton "The More Complete Carpet Python" describing a reproductive phenomenon called androgenesis, where an offspring develops using only the father's nuclear DNA with no maternal genetic contribution. The result is essentially a paternal clone. This has been documented in carpet pythons, and in that case it produced offspring expressing traits the mother couldn't have passed on, including visual recessives from the father in a clutch where the mother wasn't a known carrier.
That description fits this clutch well. Rather than my female being a surprise het albino who just happened to produce only 1 albino from 22 eggs (roughly 1 in 57,000 probability), the single albino may simply carry only its father's genetics, making it homozygous albino through androgenesis rather than through normal inheritance.
The paradox animal in the same clutch adds another layer of curiosity, two developmental anomalies in one clutch.
I'll be sexing both animals carefully. According to the book, androgenic offspring are expected to be female due to the XX/XY sex determination system in pythons.