World’s First Hybrid Sharks Discovered

Researchers have detected not one, not two, but 57 hybrid sharks lurking off the the coast of Australia.

Hybrid shark off the coast Australia

The University of Queensland reports that in five different spots along a 1,200 miles stretch of Australia’s eastern coastline, nearly 60 sharks that were the product of interbreeding between two separate, albeit similarly named species: common blacktip sharks and Australian blacktip sharks. Discovering just a handfull of hybrid sharks would be enough to excite ocean scientists, but what they ran across proved that the finding wasn’t just a fluke.

“To find 57 hybrids along 2000km of coastline is unprecedented,” says Dr. Jennifer Ovenden from the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.

According to Ovenden, the need to keep up with rising ocean temperatures may have led to the rise of this new, presumably more advantageous hybrid shark varieties.

“Hybridization could enable the sharks to adapt to environmental change as the smaller Australian black tip currently favours tropical waters in the north while the larger common black tip is more abundant in sub-tropical and temperate waters along the south-eastern Australian coastline.”

The findings of a new hybrid species of shark goes to show just how versatile life can be in dealing with the ecosystem altering forces of climate change . Proving yet again that there may be no shortage of natural marvels and awesome phenomena left to be discovered.

Marine biologists say that these offspring of two genetically distinct species actually represent an extraordinary and totally unprecedented discovery in the world of sharks.

What a perfect example of evolution for all of those who can’t wrap their mind around the fact that it’s real. Physical and conscious evolution are always happening and have been forever.