23 May 2007

Chalk another one up for Fish

Fish just keep getting better and better. I just read of a case of parthenogenesis in a hammerhead shark in captivity. Now there’s evidence that both bony and cartilaginous fish are capable of reproducing without a male partner. Of course, many other animal groups can also do this (birds, reptiles, etc.) but not mammals, so fish are totally better than mammals.

Speaking of mammals, I only recently learned that blue whales and humpback whales can hybridize. It makes sense, they’re both baleen whales, but it seems unintuitive to me. Although, given that there’s like 100 blue whales left, cross-breeding may be their only survival option.

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