Scientists Study Walking Shark

It sounds like the stuff of nightmares - but scientists are studying a shark that walks on land. Young epaulette sharks are able to walk in and out of the water using their paddle-shaped fins. It is an evolution researchers describe as “breaking all the rules of survival.”

Photo Insert: Epaulette sharks live in reef flats around Australia’s Southern Great Barrier Reef, a habitat that can become completely isolated by the outgoing tide.

The reef-dwelling species can endure roughly two hours without any oxygen at all, according to a Euronews Green report written by Charlotte Elton But you don’t have to move inland just yet - these rare creatures survive on worms, small fish, and crustaceans, not humans.

Epaulette sharks live in reef flats around Australia’s Southern Great Barrier Reef, a habitat that can become completely isolated by the outgoing tide. Other species of walking shark can be found around Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea.

When the tide changes, sharks can become trapped in shallow rock pools. To survive, the species evolved to cope without oxygen for up to two hours - and to move with its fins in a crawling motion.

This “breaks all the rules of survival”, a statement from Florida Atlantic University declared. Scientists there are investigating how walking and swimming abilities change in an epaulette shark’s early development.

When newly hatched, they survive from an internalized yolk sac, whereas slightly older juvenile sharks forage for their own food. The yolk gives the newborns a bulging belly. But scientists found that body shape made little difference in how fast they could move.

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