God gives up on humans, has baby shark born of a virgin (no, really)

In other news, God has fathered a new son. He has given up on humanity and decided to save the sharks from their sins:

Scientists have confirmed the second case of a “virgin birth” in a shark.

In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female blacktip shark in a Virginia aquarium contained no genetic material from a male.

Okay, I’m kidding about the God part — he doesn’t really exist — but the fatherless shark is real news. It seems asexual reproduction can happen very rarely in sharks. Who would have thought?

Comments

  1. Digital Dame says:

    I knew it, I knew he liked sharks better. That’s why they get to regrow teeth. (ever had to have a root canal? you know what I’m talking about).

    There was another instance of parthenogenesis fairly recently, wasn’t there? Was it another shark or something else?

  2. murrowcronkite says:

    Hail the Jesus shark!

  3. murrowcronkite says:

    I’m starting the Sharkian church.

  4. Metro says:

    I foresee a new Spielberg/Gibson collaboration: The Passion of Jaws.

  5. wazza says:

    the previous case was a hammerhead…

    just like Jesus was a carpenter!

    Unfortunately, neither shark survived, the hammerhead being eaten and the blacktip dying while still pregnant, and so the sharks will not be Saved just yet.

  6. Proto says:

    Wait, second? Wikipedia says third/fourth.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis#Sharks

    Komodo dragons can do it to, but due to a different system of gender chromosomes the offspring are always male. (Which is an advantage in that a single female can populate an entire island.)

  7. GDad says:

    I suppose the bacteria are god’s chosen creatures.

  8. I always figured the whole virgin birth thing was a cover story for screwing around without permission. ;) This throws a whole new dimension into things.

    Sadly, this process only seems to work on specific creatures, with humans not being one of them. I guess my initial premise still holds.

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