Stingray has revealed NO hybrid shark babies – reason for mysterious pregnancy

A STRINGRAY who made headlines for his mysterious conception has had the cause of his pregnancy revealed.

Last week, Team Ecco's Aquarium & Shark Lab, based in South Carolina, was shocked by the discovery that the wirefish Charlotte was pregnant in an aquarium without males.

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The discovery puzzled the aquarium team, who offered two rare but possible explanations for how Charlotte became pregnant.

“We're either going to have partho babies, or we're going to have some kind of potential mixed breed, and we're waiting for Jeff Goldblum to show up because we're Jurassic Park right now!” Brenda Ramer, executive director of Team Ecco, told ABC 13 News.

One theory was that Charlotte mated with one of the young male bamboo sharks that also live in her tank.

Hybrids are possible between two genetically similar species that have recently diverged.

We need to make it clear that there are no shark ray scandals happening here.

Kady Lyons, research scientist at the Georgia Aquarium

This is said to have resulted in the first scientifically documented stingray-shark hybrid.

However, a separate expert, Kady Lyons, whose graduate work focused on the species, has now said this would have been 'impossible' for Charlotte the stingray.

This is due to the anatomical and size differences between Charlotte and the bamboo sharks.

Lyons, a research scientist at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, said Charlotte's pregnancy is the only documented example she knows of of round stingrays.

“I'm not surprised because nature finds a way to make this happen,” she said.

Lyons added: “We need to make it clear that there are no shark ray scandals happening here.”

Instead, the second theory turns out to be true: Charlotte reproduced all on her own through a process called Parthenogenesis.

Parthenogenesis – how so-called 'parthobabies' are born – is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which an embryo can grow from an unfertilized egg.

“We don't know why it's happening,” Lyons added.

“Just that it's a very beautiful phenomenon that they seem to be able to do.”

The pregnancy was considered by the aquarium to be “a once-in-a-lifetime scientific mystery.”

The process is incredibly rare, but has also been observed in other shark and ray offspring while under human care.

These 'virgin births' are thought to be the key to protecting endangered species and eradicating them from the brink of extinction.