Scientists at the Cala Gonone Aquarium, Sardinia, Italy, recently witnessed a rare case of “virgin birth” or parthenogenesis in the smoothhound shark species. The mother shark was kept in an all-female shark tank for a decade. She gave birth to her offspring without being fertilized by a male shark’s sperm. The baby shark has been named Ispera meaning “hope” in Maltese. The mother shark was in a tank with another female and hadn’t been in contact with male sharks for a long period of time. According to scientists, this form of asexual reproduction might be the very first documented event … Continue reading A Smoothhound Female Shark Gives Birth to a Shark Pup by Parthenogenesis