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A CNN article reports that DNA testing on a shark pup carried by a female blacktip shark proved that the pup was the product of parthenogenesis, a phenomenon observed in nature in which a female bears offspring without the involvement of a male member of the species. Using methods similar to a human DNA paternity test, scientists compared the DNA profiles of the mother and pup and found that both had exactly the same DNA profile. Normally, only half of the pup’s DNA is from the mother, and half comes from its father’s DNA.

The mother, dubbed “Tidbit,” was caught in the wild when she was very young and reached sexual maturity in a tank at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach, where she lived for eight years. During the entire time of her captivity, there were no other male blacktip sharks in the tank. Unfortunately, Tidbit died during a routine medical exam, and it was during the examination that the nearly-full term pup was found inside her womb.

Tidbit’s case is the only the second in which the “virgin birth” phenomenon was observed and proven via DNA testing. The first case involved a hammerhead shark born in a Nebraska zoo in 2001.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Home Paternity Tests. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.