Female Shark

Female Shark

By Staff Writer Last Updated March 25, 2020

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Sharks do not have a specific name for the different sexes. Baby sharks are called pups
Sharks are egg layers. The male shark has claspers on each side of his body. Many people believe male sharks have two penises when in fact they are looking at the claspers. These are used to place the sperm inside of the female. The sperm will then be fertilized and an egg laid. The egg is sometimes left in a protective casing called a mermaid’s purse. The pups are born looking similar to the adults. They do not have to go through a larvae stage.

[Chorus] She such a freaky girl (Yeah) She puts me in the craziest moods, in the craziest moods She such a freaky girl I wouldn't mind handling you, mind handling you Freaky girl, freaky girl I wouldn't mind handling you, mind handling you Freaky girl, freaky girl I wouldn't mind handling you, mind handling you
Genius is the ultimate source of music knowledge, created by scholars like you who share facts and insight about the songs and artists they love.
To learn more, check out our transcription guide or visit our transcribers forum
“FEMALE SHARK” depicts Trippie Redd’s crave for a fearless girl, comparing her to a freaky animal, in this case, a shark.
The song was first previewed in June 2019 and was later confirmed to be on the album in early January 2021.

By
Tijana Milikj, Zenger News

On 8/28/21 at 8:00 AM EDT

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A baby shark is raising eyebrows in Italy because it was born to a mother who hasn't had contact with a male for at least a decade.
The rare "miracle" has yet to be confirmed through DNA analysis, but it appears to be a case of what biologists call parthenogenesis — asexual reproduction.
The newborn, named Ispera, is likely the first such recorded case in her genus, known as Mustelus mustelus , according to staff at the Acquario Cala Gonone in Sardinia.
Scientists have confirmed asexual reproduction in other animals, in cases when a female egg develops into an embryo without being fertilized by sperm. The result is essentially a clone of the parent, an embryo with genetic material from only one individual.
One typical process for this form of reproduction is for an egg to be fertilized by another, less mature egg cell that behaves somewhat like sperm.
Most instances of asexual reproduction occur in plants and invertebrate animals like ants, wasps and bees. It has also been reported in other fish, reptiles and birds, species that normally reproduce sexually.
"Some female sharks can reproduce without a male to fertilize the eggs. ... This has been documented in Bonnetheads, Blacktips and Zebra Sharks," according to the nonprofit Shark Trust .
The mother, whose pregnancy came as a surprise to aquarium staff, has shared a single tank with another female shark for more than 10 years. No males have ever been present, according to the aquarium in Sardinia.
DNA samples from both female sharks have been sent to a laboratory for analysis.
"If confirmed by DNA analysis, it would be the first documented parthenogenesis in the world of Mustelus mustelus," the aquarium said on Facebook .
"It would therefore be a scientific discovery of considerable interest since it could pave the way for research aimed at verifying how parthenogenesis is a process that the [smooth-hound sharks] also use in nature. "
The smooth-hound shark , which is gray or gray-brown, is typically about 16 inches long at birth. Males reach 3.6 feet in length and females can grow to 5.4 feet. They are found in the East Atlantic Ocean from Great Britain to the Mediterranean, and in both Morocco and the Canary Islands. They are also found in South Africa along the Indian Ocean coast.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature considers the species "vulnerable," one step below declaring it "endangered," according to published results of the organization's 2016 Mediterranean survey . Aquariums in the region are trying to breed them and restock the sea — and to understand how the sharks reproduce in the wild.
"Ispera, the name chosen for the baby, in Sardinian means 'hope,' and a birth in the COVID era certainly is," the aquarium said on Facebook.
This story was provided to Newsweek by Zenger News .
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Harry Baker

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By

Harry Baker

published August 26, 2021

The baby shark was born in an all-female tank with no father in sight.
A shark's rare "virgin birth" in an Italian aquarium may be the first of its kind, scientists say.
The female baby smoothhound shark ( Mustelus mustelus ) — known as Ispera, or "hope" in Maltese — was recently born at the Cala Gonone Aquarium in Sardinia to a mother that has spent the past decade sharing a tank with one other female and no males, Newsweek reported .
This rare phenomenon, known as parthenogenesis, is the result of females' ability to self-fertilize their own eggs in extreme scenarios. Parthenogenesis has been observed in more than 80 vertebrate species — including sharks, fish and reptiles — but this may be the first documented occurrence in a smoothhound shark, according to Newsweek.
"It has been documented in quite a few species of sharks and rays now," Demian Chapman, director of the sharks and rays conservation program at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Florida, told Live Science. "But it is difficult to detect in the wild, so we really only know about it from captive animals," said Chapman, who has led several studies on shark parthenogenesis.
Parthenogenesis may occur infrequently, but it happens in many types of sharks.
"About 15 species of sharks and rays are known to do this," Chapman said. But it is likely that most species can probably do it, he added.
Scientists notice parthenogenesis occurring most often in carpet sharks, particularly white-spotted bamboo sharks ( Chiloscyllium plagiosum ) and zebra sharks ( Stegostoma tigrinum ), because they are common aquarium species. However, parthenogenesis occurs in both oviparous (egg-laying) sharks, like carpet sharks, and viviparous (live-birthing) sharks, like smoothhound sharks, Chapman said.
In the wild, parthenogenesis may be a last resort for females that cannot find a mate, either because they have been separated from others in their species or because human impacts, such as climate change and overfishing, or natural selection pressures, such as predation and disease, have wiped out all the available males. In aquariums, separation from males or long periods of isolation can trigger this natural response in females, Chapman said.
Some individual sharks have been observed repeatedly giving birth via parthenogenesis over a period of years, and others may switch between parthenogenesis and sexual reproduction when introduced to a mate, Chapman said.
There are two types of parthenogenesis: apomixis, a form of cloning common among plants, and automixis, a form of self-fertilization that more closely resembles sexual reproduction, according to National Geographic (opens in new tab) .
"Rather than combining with a sperm cell to make an embryo, [the egg cell] combines with a polar body, which is essentially another cell that is produced at the same time that the egg cell is produced and has the complementary DNA ," Christine Dudgeon, a biosciences researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia who has studied shark parthenogenesis, told Live Science. In this scenario, the polar body acts as a pseudo-sperm cell with a single strand of DNA.
The resulting offspring get 100% of their their DNA from their mother but are not exact clones of them, Dudgeon said.
This is because sex cells, also known as gametes, have a unique combination of genes that are randomly selected from each parent as they are created — so each shark egg (or polar body) has a different genetic makeup. When the polar body and egg combine, they produce a baby shark that is genetically different from the mother. But because they are only made from one gamete , not two, parthenogenetic offspring are more closely related to their mother than normal babies are, Dudgeon said.
Because parthenogenesis in sharks happens only in females and females cannot pass on a Y chromosome , it also means the resulting offspring are always female. "The mother is XX, and so she will only pass on X chromosomes to the offspring," Dudgeon said.
"Parthenogenesis is essentially a form of inbreeding, as the genetic diversity of the offspring is greatly reduced," Dudgeon said.
As such, offspring produced by parthenogenesis may have a reduced chance of survival, Dudgeon added.
"There is a high rate of embryonic failure among parthenogenetic offspring," Chapman said. "But when they do survive, many have normal lives, and some can even reproduce."
However, it is hard to pin down exactly why baby sharks die, whether they are parthenogenetic or not.
"Mortality in young sharks in aquaria, and the wild, is common, so it's hard to say what is causing it," Dudgeon said. "The [normal] offspring that are born have already won the lottery," she added.
Baby Ispera appears to be in good health and is expected to live a relatively normal life in captivity, according to Newsweek.
Originally published on Live Science.
Harry is a U.K.-based staff writer at Live Science. He studied Marine Biology at the University of Exeter (Penryn campus) and after graduating started his own blog site "Marine Madness," which he continues to run with other ocean enthusiasts. He is also interested in evolution, climate change, robots, space exploration, environmental conservation and anything that's been fossilized. When not at work he can be found watching sci-fi films, playing old Pokemon games or running (probably slower than he'd like).
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