DPG is a comprehensive underwater photography website and community for underwater photographers. Learn underwater photography techniques for popular digital cameras and specialized professional underwater equipment (wide angle, macro, super macro, lighting and work flow). Read latest news, explore travel destinations for underwater photography. Galleries of professional and amateur underwater photography including wrecks, coral reefs, undersea creatures, fashion and surfing photography.
Dive Photo Guide

News

Hotel Shark Breaks “Virgin Birth” Records
By Joseph Tepper, January 11, 2012 @ 02:50 PM (EST)
Source: National Geographic

Talk about determination— stuck in an aquarium in the middle of a luxury hotel in the desert all alone, a female zebra shark has still managed to conceive offpring….for the fourth time in a row.

The shark’s fourth consecutive “virgin birth” was first noticed in 2007 and is is a record according to scientists.

"We were actually moving the eggs, and one of the guys felt something move inside the egg, and we checked the eggs with light, and there were babies inside," recalled David Robinson, the assistant aquarium operations manager at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.

The leopard shark, named Zebedee, is beating the odds by reproducing via parthenogenesis where eggs are developing even without male sperm. Marine biologists believe this method of reproduction may be found in wild shark populations when getting through tough times.

It is little surprise that these amazing animals have lasted hundreds of millions of years!

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST EQUIPMENT

Sea & Sea YS-D130R
Sony a7 Mark V
Backscatter Optical Snoot OS-3 for Hybrid Flash
Nauticam NA-C50
Backscatter Octo 3500
Seacam Optical Precision Port (OPP)
Backscatter Atom Flash AF-1
Backscatter Mini Flash MF-3
Ikelite Housing for Nikon Z5 II
Isotta Universal Smartphone Housing
Marelux MX-A1 II
Ikelite Ecko Fiber
Retra Flash Pro Max II
SeaLife SportDiver S Smartphone Housing
Keldan Video 8XR
Be the first to add a comment to this article.
You must be logged in to comment.
Sponsor
Newsletter
* indicates required
Travel with us

Featured Photographer




Sponsors