He had been examining the shark, Tidbit, to figure out why she reacted badly to routine sedatives during a physical and died, hours after biting an aquarium curator on the shin. But sharks only breed with sharks of the same species, and there were no male blacktip reef sharks at the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach. If the pup’s DNA turns out to contain no contribution from a male shark, this would be the second known case of shark parthenogenesis. Blacktip reef sharks are sensitive to change, so it was standard procedure to give Tidbit a sedative. This time, Tidbit went under the sedation too deeply maybe because of a combination of the unknown pregnancy and the stress of being handled and of having recently been bitten by another shark, George said. read more

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