North Carolina's TikTok famous stingray has died

TikTok's most famous stingray , Charlotte, has died. The news comes a little more than a month after the aquarium she calls home announced she had been diagnosed with a reproductive disease.

Why it matters: The California round ray gained internet celebrity status in February after the humble Hendersonville aquarium where she lived announced her "miracle pregnancy," which allegedly occurred despite the fact that she hadn't encountered any male stingrays in years.

What happened: Questions and concerns about Charlotte's welfare began to mount, however, when her alleged pregnancy continued long past her expected due date.

• In May, The Assembly, a longform North Carolina magazine, investigated and published a story that quoted scientists who called some of the aquarium's claims, and the ensuing media wave, "click-bait garbage."
• Two days after The Assembly's piece ran, the Aquarium & Shark Lab by Team ECCO announced on Facebook that Charlotte had a rare reproductive disease that had "negatively impacted her reproductive system."
• It turned off comments on the post, temporarily closed the aquarium and, days later, confirmed Charlotte was no longer pregnant.

The intrigue: Charlotte's diagnosis also seemed to confirm what at least one expert interviewed by The Assembly had suspected: That the stingray may have had reproductive disease that could have led to cystic ovaries or an engorged uterus.

Catch up quick: Although Charlotte hadn't been around a male ray, she was expected to give birth to as many as four pups sometime in February, the aquarium announced at the time.

• Initially, the aquarium suggested that Charlotte could have been impregnated by one of the sharks she shared a tank with.
• That's scientifically impossible, many experts have said, but the announcement still made national and international headlines, and drew visitors from all over to Hendersonville.
• The aquarium slowly backed down from the hypothesis, later saying that Charlotte had conceived through asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis.
• It never backed down from the shark paternity claims, however, and in April, four pups changed to "a pup," The Assembly noticed in an Instagram comment made by the aquarium.

Go deeper: Searching for the truth about Charlotte the N.C. stingray