sharks

Sharks save energy with daytime naps | Science

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Sharks benefit from some shuteye, and biologists in Australia and New Zealand think they’ve begun to understand why. Their experiments suggest sharks sleep to save energy between meals. The discovery might lead to a clearer model of how sleep evolved and developed among vertebrate animals. There is plenty of evidence of sleep in vertebrate animals, … Read more

Biologists Just Totally Proved Wrong a Long-Standing Rumor About Sharks

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It’s been rumored that sharks don’t sleep at all; the fact some sharks must stay on the move to facilitate their breathing has contributed to this idea. A new study, however, finally confirms what anecdotal evidence and other research have long suggested – these animals do slumber, just as we do.   “We have provided … Read more

‘Fish’ Pet Food Could Actually Contain Endangered Shark, Alarming DNA Study Finds

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Your pet’s dinner may contain endangered shark – even if the ingredients on the label don’t explicitly include “shark”, a recent analysis of commercially produced pet foods has found.   Pet foods often describe their ocean-sourced ingredients with generic terms such as “fish”, “white fish”, “white bait”, or “ocean fish” and researchers wondered if genetic … Read more

A Creepy, Exceptionally Rare ‘Ghost Shark’ Chimaera Has Been Found in The Pacific

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Researchers have discovered an exceptionally rare, newly hatched “ghost shark” near New Zealand’s South Island, according to the country’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).   Translucent, gelatinous and crowned with a pair of giant black eyes on its pointed head, the alien-like baby likely belongs to one of the more than 50 … Read more

New Study Shows We Have No Idea What Megalodon Really Looked Like

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Earth’s oceans were once home to an absolutely fearsome predator. We know it only from teeth and vertebrae in the fossil record, but these tell us that megalodon (Otodus megalodon) was absolutely colossal. Many of those teeth are as big as your hand. Megalodon, we can only conclude, was the largest shark ever to swim … Read more

Tiger Sharks, Tracked Over Decades, Are Shifting Their Haunts With Ocean Warming

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Christopher Intagliata: For Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Christopher Intagliata. As it happens, tiger sharks have something in common with certain East Coasters.  Neil Hammerschlag: During the winter when it’s cold, they snowbird down near the Bahamas and off of Florida. And then during the summer, they migrate north. Intagliata: Neil Hammerschlag is director of the Shark Research & … Read more

These simple green lights could save sharks and turtles from fishing nets | Science

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An inky, tentacled squid stuck in a net can be a messy problem for a fisher. And for a loggerhead turtle or a diamond stingray, getting tangled in a net often means death. Now, new research offers hope: It shows that affixing green light-emitting diode (LED) lights to fishing nets significantly reduces the catch of … Read more

What Is The ‘Lunar Effect,’ And What Does It Have to Do With Shark Attacks?

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When the full Moon rises, strange things can happen here on Earth. Oysters snap close. Corals spawn. Zooplankton dive deeper. Seabirds stick to the shore. And lions hunt less.   Several of these behaviors are tied to moonlight; others, to tides. But some have no clear explanation at all. More than 50 years’ worth of shark … Read more