An albino one-eyed shark fetus found inside its mother by a Mexican fisherman has been confirmed as real by shark experts.
Commercial fisherman Enrique Lucero León caught the pregnant mother bull shark in the Gulf of California in June, and found the mutant embryo with nine normal siblings.
Sportfishing company Pisces Fleet posted photos of the bizarre-looking creature online over the summer.
Soon after the discovery, Felipe Galván Magaña, a shark researcher from Mexico’s Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias del Mar, examined the shark, which he determined to have a congenital disorder called cyclopia when only one eye forms during embryonic development.
“This is extremely rare, as far as I know less than 50 examples of an abnormality like this have been recorded,” said Magaña, according to Pisces Fleet’s blog. “The water in the Sea of Cortez is one of the cleanest in the world, so it is not likely that this is a factor.”
The fetus has been preserved, and was recently x-rayed by Magaña and colleague Marcela Bejarano-Álvarez, who authenticated it, and will soon publish a paper about the unusual find, according to a spokesman for Pisces Fleet.
In the January 2011 edition of the journal Marine Biodiversity Records, Magaña and colleagues reported discoveries of two-headed shark embryos in female blue sharks, Prionace glauca. They believe the original embryos began to divide into twins, but may have failed to separate due to overcrowding in the womb.
Shark biologist Jim Gelsleichter at the University of North Florida told National Geographic that embryonic cyclops sharks have been documented by scientists a few times in the past. As none have been observed in the wild, this suggests that they are not viable.
“It’s a humbling experience to realize you ain’t seen it all yet,” Gelsleichter said.
Cyclopia has also been reported in other species, for example a kitten born in America in 2006 had only one eye, and also had no nose, a rare disorder known as holoprosenchephaly. It died within a day of being born.
Similarly, a girl born prematurely in Israel in 1982 had one eye in the middle of her face and no nose. She also had a severely abnormal brain and died shortly after birth. The case was reported in the British Journal of Ophthalmology in 1985.
Commercial fisherman Enrique Lucero León caught the pregnant mother bull shark in the Gulf of California in June, and found the mutant embryo with nine normal siblings.
Sportfishing company Pisces Fleet posted photos of the bizarre-looking creature online over the summer.
Soon after the discovery, Felipe Galván Magaña, a shark researcher from Mexico’s Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias del Mar, examined the shark, which he determined to have a congenital disorder called cyclopia when only one eye forms during embryonic development.
“This is extremely rare, as far as I know less than 50 examples of an abnormality like this have been recorded,” said Magaña, according to Pisces Fleet’s blog. “The water in the Sea of Cortez is one of the cleanest in the world, so it is not likely that this is a factor.”
The fetus has been preserved, and was recently x-rayed by Magaña and colleague Marcela Bejarano-Álvarez, who authenticated it, and will soon publish a paper about the unusual find, according to a spokesman for Pisces Fleet.
In the January 2011 edition of the journal Marine Biodiversity Records, Magaña and colleagues reported discoveries of two-headed shark embryos in female blue sharks, Prionace glauca. They believe the original embryos began to divide into twins, but may have failed to separate due to overcrowding in the womb.
Shark biologist Jim Gelsleichter at the University of North Florida told National Geographic that embryonic cyclops sharks have been documented by scientists a few times in the past. As none have been observed in the wild, this suggests that they are not viable.
“It’s a humbling experience to realize you ain’t seen it all yet,” Gelsleichter said.
Cyclopia has also been reported in other species, for example a kitten born in America in 2006 had only one eye, and also had no nose, a rare disorder known as holoprosenchephaly. It died within a day of being born.
Similarly, a girl born prematurely in Israel in 1982 had one eye in the middle of her face and no nose. She also had a severely abnormal brain and died shortly after birth. The case was reported in the British Journal of Ophthalmology in 1985.
