Parthenogenesis in sharks
 

Sharks are capable of 'virgin birth,' study finds
source

Female sharks can fertilize their own eggs and give birth without sperm from males, according to a new study of the asexual reproduction of a hammerhead in a U.S. zoo.

The joint Northern Ireland-U.S. research, being published today in the Royal Society's peer-reviewed Biology Letter journal, analyzed the DNA of a shark born in 2001 in the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb.

The shark was born in a tank with three potential mothers, none of whom had had contact with a male hammerhead for at least three years.

Analysis of the baby shark's DNA found no trace of any chromosomal contribution from a male partner. Shark experts said this was the first confirmed case in a shark of parthenogenesis, which means "virgin birth."

Asexual reproduction is common in some insects, rarer in reptiles and fish, and has never been documented in mammals.

The list of animals documented as capable of the feat has grown along with the numbers being raised in captivity — but until now, sharks were not considered a likely candidate.

Before the study, many shark experts had presumed that the Nebraska birth involved a female shark's well-documented ability to store sperm for a lengthy period of time. Doing this for six months is common, and three years would be exceptional, they agreed.

The lack of any paternal DNA in the baby shark ruled out this possibility.

"We were all very skeptical about these reports, about the possibility of a so-called virgin birth in a shark, because sharks have this unusual ability to store sperm for months if not years," said Bob Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla.

What next? ParthenoExodus?
 

I'll not make a pilgrimage until I hear that the baby shark has been laid in a manger and visited by at least 3 wise men!

I was RIGHT!

You ARE bored!!! :sly

Several questions come to this wondering mind.

I wonder if the baby shark was male or female?

I wonder if, in the continued absence of males, if this continued several generations what changes might begin to occur with a series of births with no male progenitor?

This would be an interesting thing to know more about.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.... But adaptation and evolution and 2 completely different animals are they not.

Now that is an entirely different form of adaption that, in time, can cause changes on an evolutionary scale. :)

Was she really a virgin?