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Female Sharks Can Reproduce Alone
mikesd81 writes "The Washington Post has an article about a team of American and Irish researchers that have discovered that some female sharks can reproduce without having sex, the first time that scientists have found the unusual capacity in such an ancient vertebrate species. Their report concludes that sharks can reproduce asexually through the process known as parthenogenesis (the growth and development of an embryo or seed without fertilization by a male). Scientists started investigating after a female hammerhead shark was mysteriously born at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo in a tank that housed 3 female sharks. It was originally thought one had stored sperm from a male shark before fertilizing an egg. However, baby shark's genetic makeup perfectly matched one of the females in the tank, with no sign of a male parent."
I, for one, welcome our new female shark overlords. Or should I say hermaphrodite sharks?
My photo's.
Hey, it's been working for me for 20 years :P
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Well Duh! Anyone that's seen Jurassic Park knows that anytime you create a habitat of only females offspring will mysteriously appear.
By the way does the baby have a friggin' laser on its head?
Get a web developer
This is just great.
Now the female sharks are going to dump all the males, and we're gonna be stuck with a bunch of angry lonely male sharks...
If they find frickin lasers, we're all screwed.
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Who first suggested the idea of female sharks reproducing without sex?
Luckily, this doesn't spell doom for mankind!
Now, if life found a way to give birth to sharks with lasers pre-mounted, THEN we're doomed.