Virgin shark got pregnant in Virginia aquarium

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists using DNA testing have confirmed the second-known instance of "virgin birth" in a shark -- a female Atlantic blacktip shark named Tidbit that produced a baby without a male shark. The shark came to the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Centre in Virginia Beach not long after being born in the wild and lived there for eight years with no males of the same species, said Beth Firchau, the aquarium's curator of fishes. The 5-foot (1.5-metre) shark died after being removed from the tank for a veterinary examination, and a subsequent necropsy revealed that Tidbit was carrying a fully developed shark pup nearly ready to be born, Firchau said. Demian Chapman, a shark scientist with the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook... [read full story]