This is kinda scary/weird. I was googling around, looking for something to write a letter about, when I found this bit of news:
The world's first hybrid shark was discovered by scientists in waters off Australia's east coast on Tuesday, reports Amy Coopes of the AFP.
According to lead researcher Jess Morgan, the hybridization might be a sign that the animals are adapting to rising temperature levels as a result of climate change. (emphasis mine - WS)
The inter-bred species is a mix between the common black-tip shark and the Australian black-tip, according to researchers from the University of Queensland.
Link
The Christian Science Monitor also reported on this:
In what is being hailed as the world's first evidence of inter-species breeding among sharks, a team of marine researchers at the University of Queensland have identified 57 hybrid sharks in waters off Australia's east coast.
{snip}
"Wild hybrids are usually hard to find, so detecting hybrids and their offspring is extraordinary," said Ovenden.
Hybridization is common among many animal species, including some fish, but until now it has been unknown among sharks. In most fish species, fertilization takes place outside the body, with the males and females each releasing their gametes into the water where they mix. Blacktip sharks, by contrast, give birth to live young and actively choose their mates, which, as the scientists discovered, can sometimes be of a different species.
Ovenden speculated that the two species began mating in response to environmental change, as the hybrid blacktips are able to travel further south to cooler waters than the Australian blacktips. The team is looking into climate change and human fishing, among other potential triggers.
Link
In a desperate straining for effect, I generated the following letter, which I offer as an example of, um, jumping the...never mind. I can't say it. Sent January 3:
With the discovery of a new species of hybrid shark in the waters off Australia, we're getting a glimpse of what the next few centuries have in store for us. In a post climate-change future, Earth's fauna will respond to extreme weather conditions the only way they can — by adapting under extreme evolutionary pressure. It's just our luck that the critters involved are vicious, soulless, mindless, predatory killing machines propelled only by the most basic of survival instincts.
Meanwhile, humanity's attempts to mitigate runaway climate change are stymied by the corporate interests most implicated in causing the greenhouse effect — fossil fuel companies, which could just as easily be described as vicious, soulless, mindless, predatory killing machines propelled only by the most basic of survival instincts. Are twenty-first century mega-corporations the economic analogue to new species of sharks?
Will it ever be safe to go back in the water?
Warren Senders
There are lots of papers out there carrying the story. Why don't some of you file off the serial numbers on my letter and send a version to them?