At first, even scientists didn't understand how a stingray could get pregnant without a male partner at a North Carolina aquarium for years.
Charlotte, a plate-sized spiny fish, has spent most of her life in a storefront aquarium in the Appalachian Mountains. He lives 3,700 kilometers from his natural habitat, and has not shared an aquarium with a male stingray for at least eight years. However, life had its way, as it turned out that the animal was pregnant and would give birth to its offspring within the next two weeks.
Members of the scientific world were also shocked to see that Charlotte began to swell.
Initially, overfeeding or cancer was suspected, but an ultrasound scan revealed that she was carrying tiny stingrays under her heart. Briefly News According to him, it could be a shark, and it could be some kind of mixing of species, and then experts quickly refuted it. Charlotte cannot mate with any of the five small sharks she lives with, which is a scientific and biological impossibility: the difference in DNA and body structure does not allow for this either. The only explanation is parthenogenesis, a form of asexual reproduction. In this case, offspring develop from unfertilized eggs without sperm cells. This phenomenon also occurs in insects, fish, amphibians, birds and reptiles, but not in mammals.
The marvel of science is the pregnant stingray
Cady Lyons, a researcher at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, said Charlotte's pregnancy is the only documented example she knows of in a stingray. However, Lyons was not shocked at all. last They see that In the case of shark species, this type of pregnancy has also occurred, especially when conventional mating and reproduction was not possible in the artificial, man-made environment.
According to Lyons, these animals do not clone themselves. Instead, the female's unused egg fuses with another cell, initiating cell division and resulting in the formation of an embryo. The cell that fuses with the egg is called the polar body. “We don't know why this is happening,” Lyons said. “It's a very beautiful phenomenon that stingrays seem to be able to do.” Charlotte currently lives in an 8,300-litre tank.
But there could be up to 4 small stingrays hiding in it, so you'll need more space.
Fortunately, word has spread widely, so there will likely be money to create an aquarium twice as large, with cameras installed so anyone can enjoy the daily life of the stingray family. If you want to observe the spiny ray in its natural habitat, look for it in warm, shallow seas. There are a lot of them in Southern California and swimmers should be warned about them. The animals that feed on small worms, crabs and slugs do not pose any danger to humans, but if one steps on them, they will certainly give the unwary a painful bite. By the way, this species is impressive in every way, although it does not have mother's milk, because it is not a mammal, it bathes its offspring in royal jelly in the womb, thus providing them with the nutrients necessary for their growth.
We eagerly await the birth of uniquely created little things.
Featured Image: Getty Images
