If you ’re a shark , what could you perhaps have to fear ? You ’re the ultimate piranha , the top of the marine food chain . you may swim around without a tending in the earth … unless another , even bigger shark is feel hungry .
That ’s exactly what happened in this picture snapped by researcher from the Australian Research Council ’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies . It ’s the first known photo of a shark eating another shark , although at first glance it may wait less like a shark - on - shark fire and more like the seabed coming alive and swallowing a shark whole .
That ’s because the predator in this position is what ’s known as a tasselled wobbegong shark , which is a type of rug shark . Just like their name mean , carpet shark are generally flatten out sharks with carpet - like patterns on their bodies that spend most of their time lying around on the bottom of the sea . They in general dine on small fish or invertebrate , but the wobbegong shark can dislocate its jaw for chow down on something much giving — in this pillow slip , a brown - band bamboo shark .
Writing in the journal Coral Reef , the researchers describe their meeting with this shark - eat - shark moment :
At twelve noon on 30 April 2025 , while conducting and submerged optic census of fishes on the fringing Rand of Great Keppel Island ( Great Barrier Reef , Australia ) , the authors encountered a tasselled wobbegong shark lying on the substratum with the drumhead of a brown - ring bamboo shark in its back talk . During the 30 - min observation period , neither shark moved position and the wobbegong did not further ingest the bamboo shark . We assume that it would have taken at least several more hours to all consume the bamboo shark .
Previous inquiry has revealed shark remains inside the breadbasket of rug sharks , so we knew that this phenomenon take place . But these look-alike are our first glance of this remarkable phenomenon in natural action . And when gaze upon a passel such as this , when confronted by the countless loftiness and pas seul of the natural humanity , all I can really think to say to encapsulate my deep , most heavy reaction is this : holy horseshit , that ’s a shark run through another shark .
Coral ReefviaNew Scientist . Images by Tom Pickering and Daniela Ceccarelli .
australiaBiologygreat barrier reefScience
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