Hybrid Shark Discovered

[Rydia]

Saw this in the news section of my homepage.

http://futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/_...lias-hybrid-shark-reveals-evolution-in-action

Australia's hybrid shark reveals evolution in action

University of Queensland
This image shows a hybrid black tip shark containing both Common and Australian black tip DNA.


By John Roach
Hybrid sharks have been discovered swimming in the waters off Australia's east coast. The finding may be driven by climate change, a research team says, suggesting such discoveries could be more common in the future.
The hybridization is between the Australian black tip shark which favors tropical waters and the larger, common black tip shark, which favors sub-tropical and temperate waters.
While the distribution for the genetically distinct species overlaps along the northern and eastern Australian coastline, the finding that they mated and produced offspring is unprecedented, according to the discovery team from the University of Queensland.
"To actually find something like this and prove it genetically is unprecedented," Bob Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, told me Tuesday.
Hueter was not involved with the research, though one of the scientists responsible for the discovery used to work in his lab, which he said lends the finding credibility. The finding is based on genetic testing and body measurements and reported December 2011 in the journal Conservation Genetics.
The team identified 57 of the hybrids from five locations spanning 1,250 miles along the Australian coast.
"Wild hybrids are usually hard to find, so detecting hybrids and their offspring is extraordinary," Jennifer Ovenden, an expert in genetics of fisheries species and team member, said in a news release.
The hybridization could be an adaptation to climate change, the team noted, allowing the tropical Australian black tip shark to live in the cooler, sub-tropical waters.
It could also be a technique to survive in over-fished waters, speculated Hueter. As fisheries are depleted, hybridization is a way to keep reproducing.
"In a sense, it is catching evolution in action," he told me.

 

[Marquis of Granby]

god really does work in mysterious ways.

mhm aha.

allowing different species to breed. mmmmmmmmmmmmm. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

 

[Richard B Riddick]

"To actually find something like this and prove it genetically is unprecedented," Bob Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, told me Tuesday.

It is unprecedented considering grizzly--polar bear hybrids were discovered in the wild back in 2006 & genetically proven to be hybrids.

Maybe scientists don't understand what the word 'unprecedented'*** means?

Yar, yar. Grinch post.

2006 Discovery

Jim Martell, a hunter from Idaho, found and shot a grizzly–polar bear hybrid near Sachs Harbour on Banks Island, Northwest Territories, Canada, reportedly on 16 April 2006.[1][3] Martell had been hunting for polar bears with an official license and a guide, at a cost of $45,450,[5] and killed the animal believing it to be a normal polar bear. Officials took interest in the creature after noticing it had thick, creamy white fur, typical of polar bears, as well as long claws; a humped back; a shallow face; and brown patches around its eyes, nose, and back, and having patches on one foot, which are all traits of grizzly bears. If the bear had been adjudicated to be a grizzly, the hunter would have faced a possible CAN$1,000 fine and up to a year in jail.[6]

A DNA test conducted by the Wildlife Genetics International in British Columbia confirmed it was a hybrid, with the mother a polar bear and the father a grizzly.[3] It is the first documented case in the wild,[7] though it was known that this hybrid was biologically possible and other ursid hybrids have been bred in zoos in the past.
Amidst much controversy, the bear has since been returned to Martell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly–polar_bear_hybrid#2006_Discovery

 

[AJP82]

Imma let you finish, but C. Megalodon was the coolest shark. OF ALL TIME.

Anyway, I was under the impression that cross-species breeding had already been accomplished through the Liger and Tigon, notwithstanding their infertility.

 

[Marquis of Granby]

it said to be "unlikely" that a tiger would breed with a lion or vice versa in the wild. so they exist, but only because people have intervened.

apparently tigers and ligons suffer from a string of physical health problems as well as depression. its quite cruel really