NBC News: Pregnant Oarfish Eaten by Larger Unidentified Shark
American scientists have recorded the first case of a herring shark being eaten by a larger creature. This reports NBC News.
In October 2020, Arizona State University researchers captured a pregnant porbeagle shark. They attached two tracking devices to the 6-foot-long fish and released it to study its behavior. However, just a few months later, one of the sensors resurfaced off Bermuda.
The scientists collected data from the tag and noticed that it was in unusual conditions for a herring shark. “All the data pointed to the same conclusion: it had been eaten,” said Brooke Anderson, one of the researchers. They found that the tag had been moving around in the stomach of an unknown marine animal before surfacing.
Related materials:
The pregnant porbeagle may have been eaten by a great white or mako shark, the university said. They dismissed theories about attacks by other predators as inconsistent with the biology. “We need to continue to track these sharks with sensors to see how often this is happening,” Anderson said. She noted that it is now important for scientists to learn how such attacks affect the porbeagle population.
It was previously reported that the fossilized remains of a manatee that had survived an attack by two predators were found in Venezuela. It had marks left by a crocodile’s teeth, and a broken tooth from a tiger shark was lodged in its neck.
#Twometre #shark #eaten #time #larger #creature #unknown #species
