Immaculate Conception?
-
An aquarium and shark lab in Hendersonville is expecting a miracle birth any day -- with some exciting new additions.
The Aquarium and Shark Lab by Team ECCO in downtown Hendersonville has an expectant stingray named Charlotte.
But this pregnancy isn't just any normal pregnancy -- and because of that, staff thought the swelling they started to see in Charlotte in September might be cancer.
Why? Because there was no possible way for her to have become pregnant -- or so they thought -- as there were no male sting rays in the tank.
However, there are still two ways Charlotte could have gotten pregnant -- and staff won't know which way until the pups are born.
One is a very rare process called parthenogenesis, in which the eggs develop on their own without fertilization and create a clone of the mother.
"We have been doing ultrasound on our ray, Charlotte, since September, when she began to 'swell.' We documented multiple 'growths' internally and initially thought she had a cancer," Ramer said via email on Feb. 1. "I reached out to Dr. Rob Jones, the aquarium vet, and he identified the growths as eggs. We have no male ray. He said there have been few cases of parthenogenesis in rays."
The second possible explanation for Charlotte's pregnancy is more in the "Jurassic Park" arena, according to the aquarium's founder: Charlotte could have mated with one of the young sharks that was added to the tank in July.
For the record, I've never been to Hendersonville.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
-
An aquarium and shark lab in Hendersonville is expecting a miracle birth any day -- with some exciting new additions.
The Aquarium and Shark Lab by Team ECCO in downtown Hendersonville has an expectant stingray named Charlotte.
But this pregnancy isn't just any normal pregnancy -- and because of that, staff thought the swelling they started to see in Charlotte in September might be cancer.
Why? Because there was no possible way for her to have become pregnant -- or so they thought -- as there were no male sting rays in the tank.
However, there are still two ways Charlotte could have gotten pregnant -- and staff won't know which way until the pups are born.
One is a very rare process called parthenogenesis, in which the eggs develop on their own without fertilization and create a clone of the mother.
"We have been doing ultrasound on our ray, Charlotte, since September, when she began to 'swell.' We documented multiple 'growths' internally and initially thought she had a cancer," Ramer said via email on Feb. 1. "I reached out to Dr. Rob Jones, the aquarium vet, and he identified the growths as eggs. We have no male ray. He said there have been few cases of parthenogenesis in rays."
The second possible explanation for Charlotte's pregnancy is more in the "Jurassic Park" arena, according to the aquarium's founder: Charlotte could have mated with one of the young sharks that was added to the tank in July.
For the record, I've never been to Hendersonville.
@George-K said in Immaculate Conception?:
He said there have been few cases of parthenogenesis in rays."
This is my guess. I think this happens in fish/amphipians that is not so uncommon.
