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Friday, October 10, 2008

Jawsus

Scientists have confirmed the second known case of virgin birth in a shark.  A pup carried by a female blacktip shark in Virginia contained no genetic information from a father and was the result of a rare kind of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, enjoyed by some bony fish.  Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that God has decided once more to bless us with the presence of his One and Only Son (only this time with awesome shark teeth).  Parthenogenesis happens when the Force decides to concentrate its midi-chlorians in the womb of a virginal Hutt slave.  Just kidding.  That would be fucking stupid.  No, parthenogenesis happens when the mother's chromosomes split and are rejoined again as a full set during egg development.  It's likely that this isn't some sort of "life finds a way" survival technique and is instead just a freak occurrence.  After all, the resulting pups are so genetically handicapped that they probably wouldn't survive long in the wild. So just think about that before you try to circumvent the adoption board and make with a little parthenogenesis yourself.  More details here.

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