Mysterious sharks can walk on land without legs -thanks to evolution

Mysterious sharks can walk on land without legs -thanks to evolution

Source: interestingengineering

8/22/2022

$Rupendra Brahambhatt$

A team of researchers from Florida Atlantic University and Australia’s James Cook University study a unique species of shark called epaulette sharks. Young members of this species have learned to walk on land using their paddle-shaped fins. They can also live without oxygen for about two hours and search for prey in reef regions where most other sharks would never come.

Since epaulette sharks are known to feed only on aquatic animals like small fish and not on land animals, they mostly walk in and around the reef. However, during the study, the researchers noticed that sometimes the sharks walked up to 30 meters on the dry land using their fins. The epaulette sharks' strange abilities are being viewed as an evolutionary step toward surviving the ongoing climate crisis.