Virgin births really happen - here are the animals that prove it

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A child touches her pregnant mother's stomach at the last stages of her pregnancy in Bordeaux April 28, 2010. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

Thomson Reuters

Yes, you read that right.

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Virgin birth is a thing, and it's been happening for millennia in some animals.

It's something called parthenogenesis, which basically just means reproduction without fertilization. The mother provides both sets of the DNA necessary to create an embryo, which is typically female.

Here are the animals that are capable of having offspring that's genetically all theirs.