Oral Presentation Australian Society of Fish Biology and Oceania Chondrichthyan Society Conference 2016

Asexual reproduction in elasmobranchs: who needs claspers anyway? (#141)

Christine L Dudgeon 1 , Laura Coulton 2 , Emily Bone 2 , Severine Thomas 2
  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  2. Reef HQ Aquarium, Townsville, QLD, Australia

Facultative parthenogenesis, asexual reproduction in otherwise sexually reproducing species, has been described from most vertebrate classes, excepting mammals, including seven species of elasmobranchs.  Here we present a case study on leopard sharks, Stegostoma fasciatum,  from the Reef HQ aquarium and discuss these findings with respect to the evolutionary implications for reproductive flexibility in elasmobranchs.