Stingray Dies After Report of Unusual Pregnancy

A stingray that became pregnant at a North Carolina aquarium this winter despite not having shared a tank with a male of her species for many years has died. The Aquarium and Shark Lab in Hendersonville said on Facebook late Sunday that the stingray, Charlotte, died after getting a rare reproductive disease. It didn't go into further detail, the AP reports. The aquarium, which is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, announced in February that Charlotte had gotten pregnant though it had not shared a tank with a male stingray in at least eight years.

But it said in late May that she was suffering from a rare reproductive disease and announced in early June that she hadn't given birth and was no longer pregnant. The pregnancy was thought to be the result of a type of asexual reproduction called parthenogenesis, in which offspring develop from unfertilized eggs, meaning there is no genetic contribution by a male. The mostly rare phenomenon can occur in some insects, fish, amphibians, birds, and reptiles, but not in mammals. Documented examples have included California condors, Komodo dragons, and yellow-bellied water snakes.

(More stingray stories.)