A stingray at Aquarium & Shark Lab by Workforce ECCO in Hendersonville, North Carolina, is pregnant with none mates in sight.
The female ray, named Charlotte, has grow to be an aquatic enigma, as the general public questions whether or not her being pregnant was brought on by a male shark or by asexual copy.
A shark-ray pregnancy “is really not that strong of a possibility,” the aquarium’s founder and government director, Brenda Ramer, instructed Fox Information Digital.
It’s extra doubtless that Charlotte turned pregnant by way of a type of asexual copy known as parthenogenesis.
Fox Information Digital additionally spoke to Nationwide Geographic senior editor Christine Dell’Amore, who famous that sexual copy usually entails an egg cell and a sperm cell.
Feminine stingray Charlotte, pictured, has appeared nice and wholesome all through her being pregnant, stated the founder and government director of the aquarium in Hendersonville, North Carolina. (Aquarium & Shark Lab by Workforce ECCO)
“Each provides half the genetic information necessary to create a living organism,” she stated. “But in parthenogenesis, the body finds a unique way of filling in for the genes usually provided by sperm.”
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The tactic entails the merging of an egg with “polar bodies,” that are a mobile byproduct of meiosis, a kind of cell division that creates sperm or egg cells.
This course of “slightly shuffles the mother’s genes,” in accordance with NatGeo, to create offspring which can be much like the mom however not precise clones.
The stingray’s ultrasound photograph is proven right here. Aquarium workers members have spoken to marine biologists internationally in regards to the stingray’s miracle being pregnant. (Aquarium & Shark Lab by Workforce ECCO)
Parthenogenesis, typically known as “virgin birth,” has been noticed in at the least 80 species, principally fish and reptiles, Dell’Amore stated.
Some species that may expertise virgin beginning embody sharks, snakes and even birds — however by no means mammals.
Different animals that typically procreate by way of parthenogenesis embody small invertebrates equivalent to bees, wasps, ants and aphids, in accordance with NatGeo.
Dell’Amore considers parthenogenesis to be “relatively rare.”
Left to proper, a blue-spotted ribbontail ray within the Pink Sea, Egypt; juvenile Komodo dragons on the Surabaya Zoo, East Java province; and a zebra shark on the Aquarium of the Pacific in Lengthy Seashore, California. (Tahsin Ceylan/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures; JUNI KRISWANTO/AFP by way of Getty Pictures; JOE KLAMAR/AFP/GettyImages)
“Scientists are often observing it in new species, many of which live in captivity,” she stated.
In some “very rare cases,” species reproduce completely by way of parthenogenesis, Dell’Amore famous.
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This consists of the desert grassland whiptail lizard, which is a completely feminine species.
It’s uncommon that complicated vertebrates equivalent to sharks, snakes and lizards rely solely on asexual copy, NatGeo reported.
The desert-grassland whiptail (Aspidoscelis uniparens) is one reptile species that may reproduce asexually. (iStock)
One of many aquarium’s sharks has laid roughly 900 eggs prior to now eight years, Ramer stated — and 14 of these eggs have grown into embryos with no fertilization.
If Charlotte’s infants develop into the product of parthenogenesis, Dell’Amore projected they “should be fine,” since they may doubtless reside in captivity.
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“If they were in the wild, it might be harder for them to breed because they’d be more vulnerable to disease than a genetically diverse population,” she stated.
Virgin births have occurred for thousands and thousands of years within the “smallest, simplest organisms,” in accordance with Nationwide Geographic.
A child stingray is housed in a everlasting show on the Sea Life London Aquarium. (Ian West/PA Pictures by way of Getty Pictures)
“For more advanced animals like vertebrates, scientists think that the ability to reproduce asexually came about as a last-ditch effort for species facing adverse conditions,” a NatGeo report stated.
“That may explain why parthenogenesis is possible in so many desert and island species.”
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Extra data on parthenogenesis may be discovered at nationalgeographic.com.
Fox Information Digital’s Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.
For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.
