Second Virgin Shark Gives Birth

Whoah!

Hot off the AP Wire is the story of the second shark to give birth in captivity without the errmm... "help" of a male shark.

"RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark.

In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male.

The first documented case of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, among sharks involved a pup born to a hammerhead at an Omaha, Neb., zoo.

"This first case was no fluke," Demian Chapman, a shark scientist and lead author of the second study, said in a statement. "It is quite possible that this is something female sharks of many species can do on occasion."

Pretty staggering what Earth's creatures are capable of.