World’s first hybrid sharks Discovered in Australia

World’s first hybrid sharks Discovered in Australia

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world's first hybrid sharks in Australia waters, a potential sign the carnivores were adapting to the climate change.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was a unique discovery, said lead researcher Jess Morgan from the University of Queensland. He further added that “It's very surprising because no one's ever seen shark hybrids before, this is an uncommon occurrence.”

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 kilometers down the coast, in cooler seas.

It means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.

The find was made through classification work off Australia's east coast when Morgan said genetic testing showed certain sharks to be one species when physically they looked to be another.

Colin Simpfendorfer, a partner in Morgan's research 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,” further adding "And in fact, this may be happening in more species than these two."

Posted by James Fried on Thursday January 05 2012, 5:49 AM EDT. Ref: reuters. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0