There ’s a routine of a mystery going on at the Aquarium and Shark Lab in Hendersonville , North Carolina , after a stingray became pregnant despite no male stingrays being present . While an interesting mystery in its own right wing , the case has draw extra attention after suggestions by the head of the marine museum that the stingray could have been impregnated by a shark .
" Our stingray , Charlotte , is expect ! We have held this close to our hearts for over 3 months , " Team ECCO , which campaign the aquarium , announced onFacebookalongside ultrasound scans . " The really amazing thing [ i]s we have no male person ray ! "
There are of course a few option for how rays could become meaning without the mien of a male . Some species of ray canstore spermfor later use , but no male stingray have been kept in the tank with Charlotte at all , Brenda Ramer , founder and executive director of Team ECCO , toldABC 13 News .
However , there were males of another mintage in there with her , leading to the unlikely ( but notcompletelyout of the realms of possible action ) lay claim that a shark could have impregnate her .
" In mid - July 2023 , we moved two 1 - year - older white position bamboo males ( shark ) into that tank . There was nothing we could find definitively about their maturation pace , so we did not think there would be an egress , " say Ramer . " We embark on to acknowledge pungency marks on Charlotte , but see other Pisces clip at her , so we move Pisces , but the biting continue . "
During coupling , manful shark – including bamboo sharks – bite the femalesin order to get into position , suggesting to the squad that this might be an explanation . Hybridsare possible , though generally between two genetically similar mintage that have not long diverged , and there are no documented vitrine of shark spawn with stingray .
" I ’m going to stop this misinfo in its track , " Dr Noah Bressman , assistant professor of physiology at Salisbury University , explained onBluesky . " Sharks [ and ] rays are as distantly related as human race [ and ] snakes , so a ophidian knocking up a human being is just as likely as a shark knocking up a ray . "
hybrid of species that part means long ago have been discovered , though they are unbelievably uncommon . In 2020 , a team found a crossbreed of an American duckbill and a Russian sturgeon , two specie that lastshared an root in the Jurassic era .
But there is a much more likely explanation for the mystery . Though ray can reproduce sexually , in rarer cases they can develop an embryo without fecundation , known as parthenogenesis , a term which stem from the Greek words for “ virgin birth ” . birthing by this method , though still rare , happens every now and then . In fact , one shark at the aquarium has given birth via parthenogenesis 14 time .
Though it is rarer in rays , it is still much more potential than what would be the first known loanblend of this kind . Either way , it ’s still exciting , and we will have our answer before long , with the ray expected to give giving birth by the final stage of the week , and the team planning DNA tests on the pup afterward .
" We ’re either going to have partho infant , " Ramer added , " or we ’re going to have some sort of a potential mixed breed , and we ’re waiting for Jeff Goldblum to show up because we are Jurassic Park right now ! "
