BELIEVE IT OR NOT: SHARK VIRGIN BIRTH

[lionking]

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081010/ap_on_sc/sci_shark_mystery

In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, 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 first documented case of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, among sharks involved a pup born to a hammerhead at an Omaha, Neb., zoo.

"This first case was no fluke," Demian Chapman, a shark scientist and lead author of the second study, said in a statement. "It is quite possible that this is something female sharks of many species can do on occasion."

The aquarium sharks that reproduced without mates each carried only one pup, while some shark species can produce litters numbering in the dozen or more. The scientists cautioned that the rare asexual births should not be viewed as a possible solution to declining global shark populations.

WOW, maybe this should be added to the list of nature wonders .. I have never imagined that this can be true

[gillianren]

Ladybugs are born pregnant. Evolution does marvelous things.

[Nowhere Man]

Look up parthenogenesis. It happens. There's a species of whiptail lizard that is all female.

The fact that this time it was a shark is interesting, but not BEYOND BELIEF.

Edit to add: Ladybugs? Don't you mean aphids? (Or FTM tribbles ;D)

Fred

[lionking]

thansk for the valuable information gillian and nowhereman. As for not being BEYONG BELIEF, well, "relatively speaking" if you think about sharks and big animals that we are "used" to them needing a male and a female for reproduction, it is a sort of beyond belief, but of course , one should believe. this is something that has been studied by scientists.

[gillianren]

It could be aphids. I remember reading ladybugs, but my memory is hardly perfect.

[Jason]

It is aphids. And tribbles.