Baby Shark Born In Female-Only Tank May Be Species' First "Virgin Birth"

Aquarium staff in Italy were recently surprised   by the birth of a babe shark in a army tank that ’s home to just two female person .

The smooth - hound shark ( Mustelus genus Mustelus ) was born earlier this month at the Cala Gonone Aquarium in Sardinia , according toa mail by the aquarium . The mother has know in a big pelagic tank at the marine museum for over 10 years in the company of just one other female of the same metal money ,   raising   some   question about the   parental setup of the neonate .

Could this be the 2nd approach of a smooth - hound dog christ ? Or perhaps the work of a mysterious lothario shark that snuck into the tank tardily one Nox ? Not likely , say scientist at the marine museum . They suspect this “ virgin nascence " is the result of an unusual replica strategy known asparthenogenesis .

Parthenogenesis – a term derived from the Hellenic tidings for “ virgin birth ” – is a form of asexual reproduction   where an egg can develop into an embryo without being fertilize by a sperm . Different mintage pull off this effort using a kind of different mechanisms , but one of the more usual mechanism in vertebrate involves the ball becoming fertilized by a polar trunk , a small cellular phone that contains genetical material leftover from egg cell formation .

The resulting materialisation only has inherited material from the female parent . However , they are not genetically identical clone and feature close to half the genetic variety of their female parent . This shaky genetical foot stand for the progeny are often malformed or die ahead of time . Despite these shortcomings , parthenogenesis can be   a useful last - ditch strategy for female to reproduce and excrete on some genetic textile if they fail to find a male during the pairing season .

This form of reproduction is most often seen in plants and insects , but has been documented in a clustering of different animals before – includinganacondas , komodo flying dragon , beam , shark , andeven birds . There are , however , no known of course occurring cases in wild mammalian .

The neonate was named Ispera , which mean “ hope ” in Sardinian . The aquarium believes they may be the first guinea pig of parthenogenesis observed in this species . They go for to affirm this by carrying out DNA psychoanalysis of the newborn baby , which should reveal whether they are a dead on target half - dead ringer of the female parent .

" It would therefore be a scientific discovery of considerable sake since it could pave the way for research aimed at verifying how parthenogenesis is a process that the [ species ] use even in nature , " Cala Gonone Aquarium say in aFacebook post .