Both fish - which are considered endangered - managed to reproduce unexpectedly while in captivity at a Hungarian laboratory. "We never wanted to play with hybridization. It was absolutely unintentional, "Attila Mozsár, a senior researcher at the Hungarian Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture, told The New York Times. Sperm and fish eggs have spawned hundreds of hybrid offspring, but some have since died. According to the researchers, "survival in all groups of hybrid families ranged from 62 to 74 percent to 30 days after hatching." It also marks the first time that successful hybridization between the two species has occurred. This new sturddlefish appeared when the research team tried to reproduce several Russian sturgeons by genogenesis, a type of asexual reproduction in which sperm is needed but leaves no traces of its DNA. As a result, the offspring end up with 100% maternal DNA (and none from the paternal contribution).
