Slashdot Mirror
Rare Virgin Shark Births Reported in Detroit
randomErr writes "Voice of America reported that 'Officials at Detroit's Belle Isle Aquarium say a shark there recently produced three babies in an event they are calling virgin births. The mother, a white spotted bamboo shark has lived at the aquarium without any male counterparts for the past six years.'"
Looking it up on Google, the only other recorded instance of a virgin shark birth happened in a Omaha zoo.
I wasn't able to find the species of shark in Detroit, but the one in Omaha was a bonnethead.
Makes for some very odd news...
If you don't know what Zoo Blacklisting is, click here.
And were those little sharks or human babies? Now I'd start worrying if it's the latter...
Yesterday was the time to do it right. Are we having a REVOLUTION yet?
i say abandon the whole Jesus-worshipping thing... nail those shark babies to a wooden cross and someone'll worship them. not me though. nope.
That's right, because as we all know, all vegetable life, such as dandelions and asparagus, regenerate in bouts of wild, passionate sex. Yikes.
It's all going according to
On the other hand, maybe "oh, gees" (plural of "oh, gee") would do.
Yesterday was the time to do it right. Are we having a REVOLUTION yet?
All in all, I suspect there is nothing miraculous about reproduction. My guess is either the shark has weird 6 year gestation or that the shark was a builtin survival mechanism where if it does not produce offspring for a long time it essentially clones itself by reproducing from its own sole DNA.
Never overestimate the end user. -jeramy b. smith
So Jesus is a lawyer?
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
So... There's hope for single geeks everywhere to perpetuate the species?
:-)
Remember - just because you can doesn't mean you should.
-Adam
Note to self:
Stop sneaking into aquariums and having sexual intercourse with the sharks.
Since the shark is obviously cloning itself, I predict that it takes about 5 minutes for the Bush administration to declare war on the species.
There actually could be some very interesting spinoffs to shark-targeting torpedos.
Jesus saves....And takes 1/2 damage.
That's amazing! I just hope they don't go out and eat all of us merry non-believers.
In some species, the female will store sperm after mating for future fertilization. Perhaps something like that is at work here? It should be easy enough to do a DNA test to see if the offspring have a father.
Well, they do. Flowering plants. It's the ferns that are evil.
Richard Simmons, popular television motivational speaker for the obese (and a rampant homosexual), miraculously gave birth to triplets last Thursday. Authorities are still coming to consensus as to the biological classification of the "lil' rascals," as Simmons calls them, but they have agreed definitively that they are not human. "The babies have large amounts of hair both on their heads and on their chests, and yet their testosterone level is actually near zero," said one doctor, present at the birth, who declined to disclose his name. "This, among other things, does not support any traits of humans."
"It's about time my New Year's Resolution came true," said the 54 year old. "Is it too much to ask to have a few bundles of sunshine of my own?" As he said this, he picked up infant Rupert, the first of the babies who left the alleged "birth canal," and began to sing "You Are my Sunshine" softly.
Not all are pleased about this, however. Many in the nearby community have expressed outrage at the newest three members of the community. "I don't want my newborn going to school with them 5 years from now. Either they move, or I do," said a local resident. Others fear the sudden emergence of yet three more to bear the Simmons name. "That guy was pregnant? Christ, we already have like four Baldwins, and we know how bad that is. Well, this will definately be worse," said another in outrage.
Though a controversial topic with much uncertainty and doubt with respect to the outcome, the fact that this was indeed a conception without sexual contact is universally accepted.
Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
I'm not sure if I believe a virgin birth... maybe this guy had something to do with it? if the aquarium security is found to be lax and he doesn't have a good alibi...
Is the shark's name Mary?
-tid242
With a few exceptions, secrecy is deeply incompatible with democracy and with science. --Carl Sagan
in some other higher species. Most notably and frequently, in turkeys.
Excellent point.
That reminds me of Ian Malcom's statement in Jurassic Park "..life will find a way..."
This raises some interesting questions about survival and evolution.
It's a well known fact that sperms are great swimmers. I think it just swam the distance from the male shark to the lady shark. I was born the same way. My mom had me while my dad was in vietnam. And "little" me had to swim across the ocean like the salmon swimming home. Oddly enough thou, I'm not a great swimmer.
This can only be interpreted as the final, irrefutable proof that god is a shark. I guess that a lot of people are left with a strange taste in their mouth after this...
including (but not limited to), the cast of:
Jaws
Jaws 2
Jaws: The Revenge
etc. etc.
"I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." -George H.W. Bush
This is a milestone. Slashdot is the first to have proof to answer the oldest question.
What came first; the chicken or the egg?
now we can all say, the hermaphrodite chicken!!, lol
pretzel_logic
i never understood why giving women the sex organs of plants is considered romantic, yeah they look and smell nice, but i wouldn't want some higher species castrating me for a gift
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
did any body see a shooting star or 3 Arab kings come dawdling by??? :-)
As I was reading the article yesterday I couldn't help but notice it said embroyos developing without fertilization happen in fish and amphibians.
This led me to think that if it happens in humans it could very well be that the woman is exponentially behind on the evolutionary scale.
Please, there's no need for such redundancy.
?-|||-----x<*))))><
... In the last interview I saw with him (this was probably a year and a half ago), he said that he has never said one word about his sex life/preference because (a) it's boring, (b) it's nobody's business, (c) it's his privacy, and (d) did he mention it was boring?
So in the interests of fairness... you can't say he's a rampant homosexual. Because we don't know one way or another and he wants to keep us in the dark.
I actually respect that position an awful lot. Nowadays, saying my sex life is none of your goddamned business is a hell of a lot more daring and principled a position than, say, publically acknowledging you like to use date-rape drugs on marmosets.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
That's weird. Your dad was in Nam while your mother was in the States. How did the sperm leave your dad without your mother and then find its way to your mother(was she swimming in the ocean?)???
Of course the odds of finding a virgin geek "tout court" are quite high.
(If you don't get it, see my slashdot handle..yes, lame joke)
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
And then there is parthenogenesis (sp.?), a phenomenon well known in stick insects (Phasmoidea). Essentially, a female will be able to produce offspring without any help from males (now this is something I have a hunch will appeal to some of /. female readership, I don't know why... ;o)
-- Serge K. Keller
named Troy McClure?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Landshark!
*CHOMP!*
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life