Report: Scientists find world's first hybrid shark off Australia

2012-01-05 20:01:29 GMT+7 (ICT)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (BNO NEWS) -- Marine biologists in Australia have spotted the world's first hybrid sharks off the country's coast, local media reported on Thursday.

In a sign of adaptation to climate change, scientists have found 57 hybrid sharks - a cross between the Australian black-tip shark and the common black-tip, which are related but genetically different species - off the Australian east coast.

Dr. Jennifer Ovenden of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries told Australia's ABC News that the mating between these two species is unprecedented as hybridization between sharks had never been seen in the wild anywhere in the world.

"Species with the smaller body can hybridize with the species with the larger body, allowing that tropical species to move further south," Ovenden told the media outlet. "We are thinking that it will provide the sharks with a mechanism to adapt to future environmental change."

While the larger common black-tip shark swims in the colder waters of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, the smaller Australian black-tip is usually found in warmer seas, but the 57 hybrid sharks were found in a 2,000-kilometer (1,243-mile) stretch of the east coast.

Scientists are now planning to look for more cases of hybridization in other waters such as Australia's western and northern coasts. Interbreeding and the resulting hybridization has been seen in the animal kingdom in birds, some fishes, and other cases, but it had been unknown among sharks.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-01-05

Oh, I thought this was a story about the land shark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3ELlI1nrjE