DNA testing has now proven that a pup carried by a female blacktip shark in a Virginia aquarium contained no genetic material from a male.
The research was reported in Friday's Journal of Fish Biology and marks the first verified case of asexual development in this lineage.

Chris Mooney is a visiting associate in the






Comments
Apparently no one else seems to find this exciting (ie - no comments), but I think this is really interesting. It leads to all sorts of questions on how the mechanics of asexual reproduction work in sharks and what the drivers are, and I wonder what the reprocussions could be for stem cell research.
Posted by: Kristine | October 15, 2008 5:02 AM
I think this is very interesting, I wonder what will happen to the shark later in life (i.e. decrease/increase life span?) or how comparable this type of animal will be to the wild ones.
Posted by: Dante | October 17, 2008 10:51 PM