Virgin Birth

This just in--Sharks take Fun4One to the next level:

Female Sharks Can Reproduce Alone, Researchers Find

Scientists began their investigation after a female hammerhead shark was mysteriously born at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo in December 2001, in a tank that held three adult, female hammerheads but no males.

Though the three females had been caught before they reached sexual maturity and held in captivity for more than three years, researchers initially thought one had stored sperm from a male shark before fertilizing an egg. But the team -- which included scientists at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, Queen's University Belfast and the zoo -- determined that the baby shark's genetic makeup perfectly matched one of the females in the tank, with no sign of a male parent.


"Yes, indeed this is a virgin birth,"
"I lost so many pints of Guinness over that one," he said.