Amazing Virgin Birth in Dubai Luxury Hotel

  • February 13, 2012
Amazing Virgin Birth in Dubai Luxury Hotel
The Aquarium team of Burj Al Arab, "The World's Most Luxurious Hotel", has announced that the Zebra Shark inhabiting the hotel's underwater restaurant aquarium is the first shark of its species to reproduce without the presence of a male –- a process known as "parthenogenesis".

Zebedee, the mother shark currently lives with her new daughter, Nimr, who is one of 21 surviving offspring to have been reproduced through the process of parthenogenesis since 2007.

The evolutionary phenomenon has never before been recorded in this species, Stegostoma Fasciatum (widely known as the Zebra Shark). It has been genetically confirmed through scientific research, following which an article has been reviewed by peers and published in Journal of Fish Biology.

Working closely with Dr. Khazanehdari of the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory in Dubai, the process of parthenogenesis was confirmed through the DNA analysis of some of the mother shark's offspring. The discovery, coupled with the survival of the pups, is a significant breakthrough in science.

Hotel Profile, more photos: Burj Al Arab