See more in our image gallery: "Who needs sex? Six animals that
cloned alone" JUST over a decade ago, a baby hammerhead shark
slipped silently from its mother's belly into the welcoming
waters of the aquarium at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska,
creating ripples that are still spreading around the world. The
mother had had no contact with male sharks for at least three
years, and DNA tests confirmed that the pup had no father. "It
was unprecedented," says shark geneticist Demian Chapman of
Stony Brook University in New York, who carried out the
paternity test. It was the first virgin birth ever confirmed in
a shark. The pup's unexpected arrival was swiftly followed by an
unexpected departure: it was killed by a stingray only a few
days later. Yet it has since become apparent that the pup was
not as singular as first thought. ... To continue reading this
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