Sharks don't need sex to reproduce

j.leidner writes: "According to researcher from Ireland and the U.S., sharks don't need sex for reproduction. A lady shark in a zoo that provably had no sex produced a baby shark with "no paternal DNA" using a process known as "Parthenogenesis", the process that "occurs when an egg cell is triggered to develop as an embryo without the addition of any genetic material from a male sperm cell." The experiment publicized only today, was reportedly carried out in 2001, which raises the question of the academic reviewers didn't believe the findings for quite some time, or have secretly carried out their own experiments... Since Slashdot curiously doesn't have (need?) a "sex" category, I tag this message "Communications"..."