{"id":175140,"date":"2025-08-25T19:53:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/175140\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T19:53:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:53:31","slug":"this-orange-shark-is-the-result-of-a-rare-genetic-double-whammy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/175140\/","title":{"rendered":"This Orange Shark Is the Result of a Rare Genetic Double Whammy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The depths of the Caribbean host a spectacular array of marine life\u2014including this nurse shark featuring vivid orange scales and cloudy white eyes.<\/p>\n

Last year, anglers on a fishing trip near Costa Rica with Parisima Domus Dei<\/a>, a tourist company, reeled in what looked like a giant goldfish with shark-like chompers. After snapping some photos of the creature\u2014about 6 feet (1.8 meters)\u2014the fishermen let it go, later describing their strange encounter to marine experts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Orange\u00a9 Garvin Watson\/Parismina Domus Dei <\/p>\n

The researchers concluded that this odd creature was not a bloated goldfish. Rather, it was a nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum), a well-known predator living in Caribbean waters. But unlike most of its brethren, this orange nurse shark has not one but two extremely rare conditions\u2014xanthism and albinism, a combination only observed once<\/a> before in marine creatures. A detailed account of the orange nurse shark\u2019s discovery and analysis was published earlier this month in Marine Biodiversity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Is this shark okay? <\/p>\n

For researchers, this orange shark is a living example of nature\u2019s wonders\u2014and quirks.\u00a0Xanthism<\/a>, or unusually yellow pigmentation, is so rare that it\u2019s only been recorded a handful of times across all animal species. That alone makes this orange shark special, but it also had \u201cwhite eyes, with no visible iris,\u201d implying the shark has albino-xanthrochromism, the mix of the two rare conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cXanthism does not directly affect the health of these sharks,\u201d Marioxis Macias, study lead author and an oceanographer at Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande in Brazil, told Gizmodo. The shark, from what researchers can confirm, \u201cappears to be quite healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Orange\u00a9 Garvin Watson\/Parismina Domus Dei <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, nurse sharks<\/a> are normally brown, an unassuming color that helps the predator blend into its surroundings. What\u2019s remarkable about the orange shark is that it survived to adulthood without such camouflage\u2014a promising sign for its survivability, according to the paper.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the genetic pathway that resulted in this aesthetic is still unclear. Independently, albinism and xanthism are associated with genetic mutations. However, researchers are wondering if this unique mix could have emerged from inbreeding or environmental stresses, such as elevated sea temperatures or hormonal imbalances. The discovery \u201craises important questions about the genetic variability and adaptability of nurse sharks in specific habitats,\u201d the paper noted.<\/p>\n

\"Orange\u00a9 Garvin Watson\/Parismina Domus Dei <\/p>\n

Whenever I learn about strange<\/a> animal mutations<\/a>, my first thought\u2014or concern, rather\u2014is whether we humans exposed them to some horrible pollutant that\u2019ll eventually end with their untimely death. So far, it doesn\u2019t seem like that\u2019s the case for this orange shark, which is great news.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This article was updated to include Marioxis Macias\u2019s comments to Gizmodo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The depths of the Caribbean host a spectacular array of marine life\u2014including this nurse shark featuring vivid orange…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":175141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[815,159,2415,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-175140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-sharks","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115091158094294911","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}