http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081010-shark-virgin-birth-2.html

Shark “Virgin Birth” Confirmed
Sara Goudarzi
for National Geographic News
October 10, 2008

A female blacktip shark in Virginia fertilized her own egg without mating with a male shark, new DNA evidence shows.

This is the second time scientists have used DNA testing to verify shark parthenogenesis—the process that allows females of some species to produce offspring without sperm. (Read about the first time.)
The female shark, dubbed Tidbit, died during a routine physical exam before the pregnancy was identified.

A necropsy—an animal autopsy—after her death revealed she was carrying a near-term pup fetus that was about 12 inches (30 centimeters) in length.

Tidbit was caught in the wild when she was very young and reached sexual maturity in a tank at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach, where she lived for eight years.

“The interesting thing about that was there were no male blacktip sharks in the tank for the entire time of her captivity,“ said Demian Chapman, a researcher with the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University in New York.

“So the question is, where does this baby come from?“ he asked.

Chapman is the lead author of a study on the female blacktip in the latest issue of the Journal of Fish Biology.

DNA fingerprinting

Chapman and his colleagues generated a DNA fingerprint for the mother shark and her pup fetus with a procedure identical to a human paternity test.

Ordinarily, a shark’s DNA contains some genetic material from its mother and some from its father. Tidbit’s pup, however, was not ordinary.

“Every part of the fingerprint of the embryo comes from the mother,“ Chapman said. “In other words, there is no genetic material from a father.“

Continued page two of article:  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081010-shark-virgin-birth-2_2.html

Did they name him Jesus?

hmmmmm, I don’t think it ever got that far since it died as a fetus when it’s mother died….

“The interesting thing about that was there were no male blacktip sharks in the tank for the entire time of her captivity,”

The Janitor and the Shark shared a secret relationship…

hulitoons - 13 October 2008 08:20 AM

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081010-shark-virgin-birth-2.html

The female shark, dubbed Tidbit, died during a routine physical exam before the pregnancy was identified.

Wow. So killing the patient during an exam is par for the course?

Yikes.  Remind me to set a higher standard for my doctor!

(And if that was routine, I would hate to see difficult or scary!)

So really it wasn’t born, maybe it was one of those twins that is absorbed and continues to thrive inside.  OK maybe not.

DJ_Canada - 13 October 2008 02:36 PM

“The interesting thing about that was there were no male blacktip sharks in the tank for the entire time of her captivity,”

The Janitor and the Shark shared a secret relationship…

Oh god!!...
Well Dj you do have the nack for making me beg to rip my brain out do you?

MadCarlotta - 13 October 2008 08:21 AM

Did they name him Jesus?

well some lizards or mantis have virgin births and its natural they dont even have male children just female!!!
Oh yeah a while back a monitor lizard also had a virgin egg laying

I dissected a shark with babies in it once.

silver caliber magnum - 14 October 2008 01:24 AM

MadCarlotta - 13 October 2008 08:21 AM

Did they name him Jesus?

well some lizards or mantis have virgin births and its natural they dont even have male children just female!!!
Oh yeah a while back a monitor lizard also had a virgin egg laying

Birds, though virgins, will also lay eggs which is in direct response to bonding.  But laying an egg is not ‘birth’ which will happen only if the egg is fertile.  In the case of birds who laid eggs for me because they were bonded with me, the eggs could not hatch or ‘birth’.

hulitoons - 14 October 2008 08:00 AM

silver caliber magnum - 14 October 2008 01:24 AM

MadCarlotta - 13 October 2008 08:21 AM

Did they name him Jesus?

well some lizards or mantis have virgin births and its natural they dont even have male children just female!!!
Oh yeah a while back a monitor lizard also had a virgin egg laying

Birds, though virgins, will also lay eggs which is in direct response to bonding.  But laying an egg is not ‘birth’ which will happen only if the egg is fertile.  In the case of birds who laid eggs for me because they were bonded with me, the eggs could not hatch or ‘birth’.

There is at least one species of lizards I know of (perhaps the ones Silver was thinking about) who do actually lay eggs that will hatch without there ever being a male lizard involved.  I can’t remember if the species is entirely female, or if it’s just that they often tend to have populations without males.  But two female lizards will get together and each will sort of take turns “role-playing” being male so that they can “mate”.  And then both females can wander off and eventually lay eggs, which will hatch into the new generation of lizards who can then repeat the process.  It doesn’t contribute to genetic diversity much, but it keeps the species alive.  Kind of weird, when you think about it.  Leapin’ lesbian lizards, Batman!

Is that kind of like some of the girls I used to go to school with who ended up pregnant and swore to their parents that they hadn’t had sex?  That was generally before they had any sex ed and realized that their parents knew better.