Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard about the stingray which somehow became up the duff despite not having a mate in her tank.
Sea creature Charlotte has become a bit of a celebrity in the animal world due to her immaculate conception which baffled staff at The Aquarium and Shark Lab in North Carolina.
After noticing she was a bit swollen back in September last year, her carers were initially concerned that she had developed cancer and performed an ultrasound to get to the bottom of it.
Advert
But staff got the shock of their lives when they realised that the stingray was actually pregnant with four pups - despite Charlotte not coming into contact with a mate.
There are no possible fathers in the mum-to-be's tank, so both scientists and so-called social media experts have been debating about how she got knocked up.
A range of conspiracy theories have been floating around about the stingray, who is not far off her delivery date, but it seems the source of her pregnancy might have been a bizarre phenomena known as parthenogenesis.
Experts explained that this is a form of asexual reproduction - which is rare, but not impossible - where a female of the species can produce an embryo, despite the fact there wasn't any sperm fertilising her eggs.
Basically, an egg fuses with a cell in the mother's body, triggering cell division which produces an embryo, making her children clones of her. It's pretty nuts, to be honest.
But one TikToker reckons she knows the real reason behind the stingray's extraordinary pregnancy and shockingly claimed that it could be the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
As you may be aware, Christians believe that the Son of God will return to Earth at some point after his ascension to heaven... and Allie O’Brien believes he is returning as one of Charlotte's pups.
The social media user, better known online as @allie_202_, explained that we 'already had another coming of Christ in a different aquarium back in 2001, but we just were not paying attention'.
23 years ago, a gang of female hammerhead sharks were clubbed together in a tank at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, and one of them ended up giving birth to a baby despite no males being in there.
The trio had not had contact with the opposite sex for at least three years and DNA analysis found there was no trace of any chromosomal contribution from a fella, so scientists were stumped.
Allie claims that this 'virgin birth' is the 'exact same situation' as Charlotte's.
She explained: "The researchers had all the same theories. They were like, 'maybe there was a different male of a different species in the tank that mated with her', 'maybe she had sperm from years ago'.
"And then finally, a forward thinker came along and said, 'Guys, what if she's literally just a feminist?'
"... There were no male chromosomal contributions to be found! She had done a form of asexual reproduction called parthenogenesis, which really should be called parthena-Jesus."
She continued: "Now, according to science, asexual reproduction is common in some insects, rare in reptiles in fish, but has never been documented in mammals.
"However, I think we must address that there once was a mammal named Mary."
Yes, she is referring to the sweet wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus.
Allie added: "And the thing about the potentially Virgin Mary is that I have just sort of assumed for all of my life that she and her husband were liars. So this is me sort of issuing my formal apology, I don't think I was being a girl's girl.
"I was letting my preconceived biases around mammalian reproduction get in the way of believing woman.
"So this is just a reminder that Jesus isn't, like, just now coming back. He's been trying, and he's kind of been flopping.
"Like, this fish died almost immediately after being born because another fish killed it. So, you know, foiled again. What can you say? Maybe, you know, this stingray will live longer.
"Good luck to Jesus this time. Um, and congrats to Charlotte for, you know, for not needing a man."
Topics: Animals, TikTok, US News, Weird, Conspiracy Theory
Olivia Burke