Friday, August 15, 2014

Weird Shark # 9: Sand Tigers AKA Ragged Tooth Sharks


As commonly referred to as a Ragged Tooth Shark as by it's proper name Sand Tiger, this shark is weird in part because of it's appearance.  My lord does it look menacing, and it is...to other sharks like dogfish, that is.  To humans, it's rarely a menace at all.  It is a slow moving creature, very docile and a favorite of large aquariums the world over, simply because it's easy on humans caring for them and other aquarium mates that it swims with on display.  It's appearance though, has made it a target of human fear, and they are often killed just for the sake of a misguided sense of safety.  This is a true tragedy, since these sharks have one of the lowest birth rates amongst all shallow water large fish out there.  Which brings me to why they are truly weird!  Female Sand Tigers have two uteruses--called twin unterine horns, so you would think there would be no birth problem, as most sharks who give birth to live pups (some still lay eggs) have the equivalent of a little of puppies or kittens.  Sand Tigers, on the other hand, always only have twins.  Why?  Because the dominate unborn shark of each uterus survives prenatal growing by consuming it's womb mates.  It's one of the world's strangest cases of cannibalism.  National Geographic photo below shows the teeth of two animals.




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