Scientists proclaim "virgin birth".

[Os Cangaceiros]

A shark has given birth to another shark which possesses no genetic material from a male shark.

Call me woefully ignorant, but I didn't know that this sort of thing (parthenogensis) was possible. Learn something everyday...

http://www.inquisitr.com/4992/virgin-birth/

[GPDP]

It's obviously Jesus. Why do you think his symbol is a fish?

[mikelepore]

If a scientific breakthrough is reported on a web site that declares its mission to be "odd and funny news", then it must be true!

[Os Cangaceiros]

Perhaps CNN is more your style, good sir? :sleep:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/10/shark.virgin.birth.ap/index.html?eref=rss_tech

[Dust Bunnies]

How was the shark made then? My entire story of birds and bees have been turned upside...

[JimmyJazz]

It's obviously Jesus.

http://faithsucks.com/files/images/abstinence.preview.jpg

[mikelepore]

Maybe someone who knows biology can explain to me, why is it unusual or difficult? If each sex has half the number of chromosomes required, so that two gametes provide one full set of chromosomes, why isn't it common to form a zygote out of two female or two male gametes?

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

It's the birth of Jawsus! Hallellujah!

On a serious note, it's an evolutionary quirk that goes back a long way that is responsible for males and females in higher animals. One species of lizard (the name of which escapes me) is entirely female and reproduces when one member of a pair starts "acting male".

[piet11111]

It's the birth of Jawsus! Hallellujah!

On a serious note, it's an evolutionary quirk that goes back a long way that is responsible for males and females in higher animals. One species of lizard (the name of which escapes me) is entirely female and reproduces when one member of a pair starts "acting male".

some frogs do that if i remember my jurassic park right :lol:

[Black Sheep]

Maybe the shark was hermaphroditish..
We all saw how godzilla gave birth to his/her young ones.

[Bear MacMillan]

some frogs do that if i remember my jurassic park right :lol:

Whenever I watch that movie it makes me think of Raptor Jesus :D

http://sweetraptorjesus2.ytmnd.com/

[S&Y]

Whenever I watch that movie it makes me think of Raptor Jesus http://www.revleft.com/vb/../revleft/smilies/biggrin.gif

That made my day :lol:

[Raúl Duke]

parthenogensis

I actually learned this in school once...(they used a type of lizard as an example)

Probably my 10th grade bio class, which I learned so many interesting things that before I didn't know about like the origin of life in Earth.

[Sendo]

Maybe the shark was hermaphroditish..
We all saw how godzilla gave birth to his/her young ones.

Hermaphrodite means possessing both sets of sex organs.

Asexual means doesn't have to have sex to reproduce.

But these are not always the same.

Earthworms are hermaphrodites, but not asexual. They must swap sperm with another worm back and forth and then both get pregnant.

Things that reproduce by dividing or by generation cycles (like the sporophyte fern giving "birth" to "sentient" gametophytes) may be asexual, but not be hermaphrodites.

No vertebrae can be hermaphrodite and fuck itself. I haven't read the article, but it sounds like a stem cell may have split off and gotten into the womb/egg-making thing (since sharks lay eggs inside of themselves...not birth-giving) or one egg fertilized another. Whereas humans are filled with extra DNA and have unstable fetuses (hence why Down syndrome messes you up and why so many fetuses self abort after a few days), it seems possible for a shark to grow up with a weirdo bunch of genes.

[Revy]

There is a species of lizards , all female that reproduces via cloning their own DNA into their own egg. I suppose this might be how that happened too. The shark might be a new evolution. I don't know...

[Revy]

Maybe someone who knows biology can explain to me, why is it unusual or difficult? If each sex has half the number of chromosomes required, so that two gametes provide one full set of chromosomes, why isn't it common to form a zygote out of two female or two male gametes?

Scientists have actually found a way to artificially create sperm and eggs for human use. A homosexual couple could use this to reproduce (for gay men, a surrogate mother would still be needed to carry the baby, though in the future they could develop artificial wombs). This is what they do. They take bone marrow DNA and convert it into a sperm cell or egg. I was like, wow! That's cool, but it's amazing the things that scientists can do now. Like control the weather, apparently they can:laugh: