US SCIENTISTS CLAIM to have witnessed an immaculate conception – in a shark.

The Journal of Fish Biology reported the fishy tale after boffins carried out DNA testing on a stillborn pup inside a dead female Atlantic blacktip shark from the aptly named Virginia Aquarium.

Mummy shark kicked the deep blue bucket in May last year, after complications during her un-noticed pregnancy. Since no male blacktip sharks had ever been in the tank, pregnancy wasn’t exactly the first medical concern on her keepers’ minds. But filleting the shark after her death, scientists Jaws dropped, as they found an almost fully-formed shark pup inside.

This wasn’t the first time a shark has pulled a Virgin Mary whilst in captivity. A while back, a hammerhead shark in an Omaha zoo apparently asexually reproduced, giving birth to a pup which was promptly eaten. "By the time they [the scientists] could realise what they were looking at, something munched the baby," sensitively noted an aquarium worker.

But this time scientists were a little snappier. Before you could say Angelfish Gabriel, the boffins had performed DNA tests on both dead Virginia and Nebraska sharks, finding that the pups had only one set of chromosomes, the mother’s, which had split during egg development.

Having only one set of chromosomes, the pups probably would have had reduced genetic diversity and a higher susceptibility to congenital disorders and diseases making it difficult for them to survive in the wild, say scientists.

Probably to prevent female sharks getting all feminist and proclaiming that they need male sharks like a fish needs a bicycle, scientists have declared it unlikely the virgin births could help boost shark populations. Both of the immaculate aquarium sharks only managed to carry one pup, whilst most shark pregnancies result in a full litter of 12 or more.

Fin. µ

L'Inq
Newswise