2-Headed Sharks May Be On Rise!!!
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Two-headed sharks sound like a monster ripped straight out of a B-list horror movie, but scientists are increasingly finding more of them worldwide. Some have suggested that the surge in mutants is due to genetic abnormalities triggered by over-fishing. The puzzling trend started in 2008, when fisherman Christian Johnson caught a two-headed blue shark embryo off the coast of Australia.
Scientists recently discovered the first two-headed shark embryo from an egg-laying species. An increasing number of two-headed sharks have been found in the world’s oceans in recent years, but scientists can’t agree why. And no one is sure how to prevent the trend from inspiring yet another “Sharknado” sequel. Last month, scientists discovered an egg-laying (oviparous) shark embryo with two heads in a lab in Malaga, Spain. Previously, the only known two-headed sharks were from species that give birth to live babies.
The discovery was also documented in the Journal of Fish Biology, which stated that the discovery was made while researchers were raising sharks for human-health research in the laboratory. The team noticed the two-headed embryo through the translucent shark egg. Furthermore, it was the first documented two-headed specimen for the catshark species. In 2013, a group of Floridian fishermen strained to haul in a large Bull shark, but upon gutting it found that its uterus housed a two-headed fetus. Blue sharks have so far produced the most two-headed offspring, because they carry large litters of up to 50 babies at a time in the womb.
Apparently not. On Nov. 5, National Geographic published an article saying that not only do two-headed sharks really exist, there seem to be more and more instances of them on the record. Most of these two-headed sharks are merely embryos or infants, because such fish are unlikely to survive long due to their genetic abnormalities. But there have been several instances since 2008.
The catfish embryo was no ordinary mutant. It is the first discovered example of a two-headed shark born by a oviparous shark species – a shark that lays eggs. In 2013, another team discovered the first instance of dicephaly in a bull shark fetus, and published those findings in the Journal of Fish Biology.
Magana has seen other strange sharks too like a “Cyclops” shark, which had a single eye at the front of its head. It was caught in 2011 off Mexico.
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