A stingray may have been impregnated by a shark in an aquarium in North Carolina in the United States.
The conditions in which the ray “Charlotte” became pregnant are the result of “mystery”, according to the managers of the ECCO Team Aquarium and Shark Laboratory Facebook page.
Researchers waited three months before publishing the news since they initially believed the marine animal might have cancer
Dr. Robert Jones of Zvet Aquarium in Australia and University of Arizona doctoral candidate Becka Campbell, however, confirmed that the stingray was indeed pregnant based on their analysis of the ultrasound images.
The mystery lies in the fact that no male rays live in the aquarium with “Charlotte”, according to statements by the director and founder of the aquarium, Brenda Ramer, in an interview with ABC 13 News.
“In mid-July 2023, we transferred two one-year-old male white-spotted sculpin sharks into the aquarium,” Ramer said. We later noticed bite marks on Charlotte, but we also noticed other fish nibbling her, so we transferred the fish, but the bite appearances continued.”
The director explained that it is the habit of male sharks to bite the female when they mate and “Charlotte” had several bites on her fins.
“We will either have babies through parthenogenesis or some sort of mixed breed,” she said on February 8.
“We are currently waiting for Jeff Goldblum because we are in Jurassic Park at the moment,” she jokes.
What is parthenogenesis?
The hypothesis that the ray was impregnated by one of the two sharks is a possibility, but “it would be surprising, even rather improbable,” says the director of biocultural conservation at SNAP in Quebec, Véronique Bussières.
This type of phenomenon has already been observed in nature, says the director, giving the example of a pizzly bear, a hybrid breed between the polar bear and the grizzly bear.
However, “these are still species that are very close,” she specifies.
In the case of the ray and the shark, which are “related,” the two marine animals are “distinct species groups.”
According to her, the parthenogenesis hypothesis is much more plausible.
Parthenogenesis “means that the female is self-fertilized,” explains the guest in an interview on LCN. So it’s not that she’s a hermaphrodite (both sexes). It’s a female, but her egg would have been self-fertilized by another of her own cells.”
In the case of self-fertilization, “the babies would be little clones of the mother,” says Ms. Bussières.
***See the interview with Véronique Bussières in the main video***