Maybe WEERD can explain this to me

By | January 3, 2012

Because apparently I’m not smart enough to understand this. A marine researcher is clearly needed.

So some scientists in Australia discovered that a shark native to the tropics has mated with a shark that is very similar (both are called black tip sharks) and produced a hybrid. That I get.

What I don’t understand is this:

The Australian black-tip is slightly smaller than its common cousin and can only live in tropical waters, but its hybrid offspring have been found 2,000 kilometres down the coast, in cooler seas.
It means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.

Let me see if I follow: A shark that can only survive in warm waters mates with a shark that lives in cool waters due to rising temperatures?

And this counts as a valid scientific hypothesis because….why exactly?

3 thoughts on “Maybe WEERD can explain this to me

  1. wfgodbold

    Well, if global warming were warming the oceans, the waters that were previously too cool for the tropical shark would no longer be so, and so it could range farther from its natural habitat to sow its wild oats.

    I guess?

    Reply
  2. Jake

    Because… um… Well, you see… Uh…

    Thou shalt not question the holy doctrine of Global Warming, or the Settled Science(TM) thereof!!11!!1!!11!111!!!! Abase thyself in shame and repent thy sin of doubt, foul heretic!!

    Or something.

    Reply
  3. Weer'd Beard

    OK First up, full disclaimer, I currently work in a cancer research lab stocked with rats and mice, and my Marine Science expertise is food fish of the North Atlantic (specifically the Gulf of Maine and George’s Bank) and I don’t know much about tropical sharks, let-alone Aussie ones.

    That being said, reading the report I suspect its two populations of the same species that got isolated by oceanic conditions (such as prevailing currents, or population densities of prey species) and the isolation created some distinct differences between the two populations, and convincing the science community that they’re two distinct species.

    Now something has changed and the populations are mixing (could be current shifts, scarce prey, over abundant prey, or water temperature change) and the two “Species” were actually just subspecies and when they’re allowed to intermingle they interbreed without hesitation.

    Of course the whole Global Climate Change Cult is a religion, just like your local Bible Thumper points out God as the cause of everything from Floods, love, and morning wood, so goes the knee-jerk of blaming climate change for anything that is a change.

    Reply

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