Environment

Hammerhead shark has virgin birth

by ricknight | May 23, 2007 at 05:50 am

755 views | 10 Recommendations | 2 comments

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 Wednesday in the Royal Society's peer-reviewed Biology Letters 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 contact with a male hammerhead for at least three years.

The baby was killed within hours of its birth by a stingray in the same tank. Analysis of its 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 is derived from Greek and means "virgin birth."

And three suspicious Middle Eastern men were detained by Homeland Security..." [couldn't resist]

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Jordan Yerman

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 06:36 on May 23rd, 2007

I couldn't pass up a headline like that. This is fascinating: we're surrounded by sharks: at the aquarium, in the media, on life rafts. Still, we know so little about their day-to-day lives, particularly their mating habits. Good stuff.