World-first hybrid shark found off Australia

World-first hybrid shark found off Australia

This is an amazing find that has been found in 57 different lines of shark within a number of generations.

what I find fascinating is that climate change and human overfishing is said to be a trigger if so then the animals in the ocean seem to know before even us humans that things need to change to survive...

I cant help but imagine that these earth changes have been happening for a while now and scientists have been ignoring what the animals have been showing us whether its a 2012 global change of events or man made change we as the people of earth need to pay closer attention.

Australian scientists hailed what they described as a world-first discovery of two shark species interbreeding Tuesday, a never-before-seen phenomenon which could help them cope with warmer oceans.

Lead researcher Jess Morgan said the mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world.

“It’s very surprising because no one’s ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination,” Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.

“This is evolution in action.”

The Australian black-tip is slightly smaller than its common cousin and can only live in tropical waters, but its hybrid offspring have been found 2,000 kilometres down the coast, meaning it could be adapting to ocean temperatures.

“If it hybridises with the common species it can effectively shift its range further south into cooler waters, so the effect of this hybridising is a range expansion,” Morgan said.

“We thought we understood how species of sharks have separated, but what this is telling us is that in reality we probably don’t fully understand the mechanisms that keep species of shark separate,” he said.

“And in fact this may be happening in more species than these two.”

Now, can you imagine a great white x Tiger shark?

reply to post by -W1LL


Mother Nature will always find a way to keep on trucking.

Sharks have been on this planet for billions of years, I would hate to see them die off because of our mistakes.

We know nothing about our oceans and their species. It's something around 1%.

So it may could be just a new species they discovered

Originally posted by daaskapital
Now, can you imagine a great white x Tiger shark?

A 3000 pound 21 ft tiger shark! I like it, they find tires in tigers sharks now..cut that sucker open and find a VW Bus.

Interesting. But they're both Black Tips,

what species or subspecies?

reply to post by daaskapital


or even the bull shark with tiger or great white

What`s nextOh, i know a hybrid of snake and a hedgehog would be cool then you`ll get something that looks like a barbed wire.

Originally posted by daaskapital
Now, can you imagine a great white x Tiger shark?

I think that's the next Scyfy (or however the hell they spell it now) movie due out in February, starring Bananarama.

Isn't there some saying along the lines of "the shark is a perfect machine that hasn't had to evolve in millions of years"?

Already shaping up to be an epic year.

reply to post by -W1LL

Australian scientists hailed what they described as a world-first discovery of two shark species interbreeding Tuesday, a never-before-seen phenomenon which could help them cope with warmer oceans.

We've never seen it happen before, so it must be due to AGW.

*Facepalm* - To the brainiac who paired an unknown hybrid species with global warming.


S & F

I wonder when a new JAWS comes out with a great white in the northern countries.. ;-)

If they start breeding with crocodiles we are in TROUBLE

Interbreeding will not necessarily produce offspring.
Did they find any sharks with genes from both?
If not then the title is incorrect.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


From the OP's reference.

The discovery was made during cataloguing work off Australia’s east coast when Morgan said genetic findings showed certain sharks to be one species when physically they looked to be another.

I would say this is a good anecdotal(sp?) evidence...but I agree with you, more genetic research should be done to confirm.

Originally posted by ignant
Interesting. But they're both Black Tips,

what species or subspecies?

Well said,they are of the same genus,with overlapping distribution.When this occurs there is alway's a intermediate hybrid zone.This is extremely common where ever this occurs.

This moron who made these stupid claims need's to be fired and sent back to school.No cancel that,complete waste of money.Just give her a broom.
As for this being linked to a need from global warming and is evolution before our eyes,oh give me a break.So what now chicken little is a hybrid?

This is not even the true definition of a hybrid,well prehaps in the loosest terms, as one can see from the replies most assume this is like two different animals from two different families or genera cross mating.These offspring if the mating was successful would then be infertile (mules),so that is the end of that.

If we are lucky,she will reply as she is a hybrid.A cross between chicken little and a peacock.Meaning she is a bird brain who is googling herself as we speak.
Oh here she comés in 3-2-1

reply to post by -W1LL


I read of this yesterday and saw that it was a Australian and a common whatevertip shark.
...Is this really news?
What is the difference between the two sharks? One has an accent?

But really, the seas are deep and wide, I'm sure theres a helluva lot more interesting things down there.

They're both Black Tips, its not as uncommon as you think. They're they same species , not different, only things different is the word Australia in the name and the size of the shark.

this is Uncommon it has never been seen before as per the article.
as for the species they are genetically Diff.

info on the blacktip shark or common blacktip.

Genetic analyses have revealed substantial variation within this species, with populations from the western Atlantic Ocean isolated and distinct from those in the rest of its range. Blacktip shark

this also might be a clue as to why the sharks produce offspring.

females are also capable of asexual reproduction.

info on Aus. blacktip

Appearance-wise this species is virtually identical to the common blacktip shark (C. limbatus), from which it can be reliably distinguished only by its lower vertebra number and by genetic markers.Aus. Blacktip

and from the article it is clearly saying that the science and understanding behind the separation of shark species.
this is not some discovery that should be pushed under the rug and mocked.

“We thought we understood how species of sharks have separated, but what this is telling us is that in reality we probably don’t fully understand the mechanisms that keep species of shark separate,” he said.

“And in fact this may be happening in more species than these two.”

this little bit of info also says that the sharks are on the same branch of evolution But still not closely related.

have found that that the Australian and common blacktip sharks form a closely related clade with the graceful shark (C. amblyrhynchoides) and the smoothtooth blacktip shark (C. leiodon).[6][7][8] The interrelationships between them have not been fully resolved, but available data suggest that C. tilstoni and C. limbatus are not the most closely related species within the clade despite their similarity.

reply to post by -W1LL


Holy crap! There goes a Great white Wobbegong!

Is this evolution? I doubt it because mad scientists have been cooking up all kinds of genetic anomalies and aberrations including grafting a dog head to another dog and they both survived the process. Oh sure you can breed different branches of the same species and get an offspring, like breeding horses with mules to get sterile donkeys, or breeding lion with tiger to make sterile ligers, but theres a 1 million year threshold where the 2 branches have been seperated and the offspring will be sterile.