Virgin Birth of a Shark

A female shark in a Hungarian aquarium has just given birth without ever mating!

Director Attila Varga said: "When I saw the baby shark lying on the bottom of the tank I thought it was a joke. I was amazed when I realised it was a real shark.

"The mother is very protective of her pup, but as soon as we can, marine biologists want to get a DNA sample from both.

"There has only ever been one other example of a virgin birth (parthenogenesis) at a zoo in America when a hammerhead shark had a pup that was killed by a stingray before keepers could remove it from its tank.

"It happened in 2000 but it was only last year that a study of the DNA was complete and indicated the pup was from a virgin birth.

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