Female Shark can reproduce without male shark

[Caribbean Jake]

DUBLIN, Ireland -- 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 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 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 is derived from Greek and means "virgin birth."

 

See entire story at:

http://www.nbc4.com/family/13369889/detail.html

[jason the filter freak]

You come up with the best articles, shoot most of us can't get anything to breed in a saltwater tank, and here they have sharks breeding with out males!?

[steveoutlaw]

DUBLIN, Ireland -- 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.

 

 

Yeah, but it's not any fun!