Graduate student using genetics to find out: Who's the daddy (or daddies)?
Scripps Institution of Oceanography / University of California, San Diego
PROUD MOTHER SHARK AND HER 20 PUPS: New video documented by a graduate student researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego features a litter of 20 leopard sharks born April 19 inside the Scripps Experimental Aquarium. Each pup is about eight inches long at the moment but will grow to up to six feet in length as adults. Scripps graduate student Andy Nosal is conducting genetic research on leopard sharks, which congregate in La Jolla, Calif., between mid-spring and mid-autumn. Because a single litter can have multiple fathers, Nosal will conduct paternity tests on each of the newborn sharks (not unlike genetic testing in humans) as part of his doctoral studies to determine how many different male leopard sharks fathered the 20 pups. The younglings, which are consuming a fine dining menu of bay scallops, eventually will be released into the wild. The four-and-a-half-foot mother shark is doing fine following the birth, which culminated a pregnancy that can last up to 12 months for leopard sharks. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!
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About Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California, San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest and most important centers for global science research and education in the world. Now in its second century of discovery, the scientific scope of the institution has grown to include biological, physical, chemical, geological, geophysical and atmospheric studies of the earth as a system. Hundreds of research programs covering a wide range of scientific areas are under way today in 65 countries. The institution has a staff of about 1,400, and annual expenditures of approximately $170 million from federal, state and private sources. Scripps operates robotic networks, and one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration.
Birch Aquarium at Scripps serves as the interpretive center of the institution and showcases Scripps research and a diverse array of marine life through exhibits and programming for more than 415,000 visitors each year.
Learn more at scripps.ucsd.edu.
About UC San Diego
Fifty years ago, the founders of the University of California, San Diego, had one criterion for the campus: It must be distinctive. Since then, UC San Diego has achieved the extraordinary in education, research and innovation. Sixteen Nobel laureates have taught on campus; stellar faculty members have been awarded Fields Medals, Pulitzer Prizes, McArthur Fellowships and many other honors. UC San Diego-recognized as one of the top ten public universities by U.S. News & World Report and named by the Washington Monthly as number one in the nation in rankings measuring "what colleges are doing for the country"- is widely acknowledged for its local impact, national influence and global reach. UC San Diego is celebrating 50 years of visionaries, innovators and overachievers. 50th.ucsd.edu
