Manta ray becomes pregnant in tank and scientists suspect a shark – 2024-02-22 04:10:53

An incredible crossing would have occurred in an aquarium in USAafter a mantraya became pregnant without having any other specimen to inseminate her, making scientists now suspect that it would have been a shark who paired with the other species of aquatic animal.

The stingray named Charlotte who became pregnant without a partner while living in a small aquarium in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

How did the mataray get pregnant without a partner?

The founder of the ECCO science team, Brenda J. Ramer, explained that There is a remote possibility that Charlotte became pregnant by a bamboo shark that shared her aquarium.but explained that it is much more likely that parthenogenesis occurred.

Aquarium director April Smith said the shark pregnancy theory occurred to them when they noticed bite marks on the stingray. The species had been sharing its tank with two male white-spotted bamboo sharks.

Despite the alarming suspicion, the main theory, which is parthenogenesis, is the one that most likely occurred. It is a relatively rare process of asexual reproduction that occurs in some animals when an embryo develops inside an unfertilized egg.

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In September of last year, obvious swelling led staff at Team ECCO’s shark laboratory and aquarium to worry that Charlotte the stingray might have developed cysts or had cancer.

An ultrasound then confirmed that she was pregnant, so the aquarium, which Ramer founded in 2009 to educate children of North Carolina about marine life, they are preparing for Charlotte to give birth at any moment, and they explained that they are expecting between one and four “cubs.†.

Once this “virgin birth†of Charlotte occurs, DNA testing will be performed on the specimens to resolve the question of how she became pregnant.