About the episode
Like fish, sharks are cold-blooded: their body temperature largely depends on the temperature of their environment. Quite a challenge if you are a large predator that regularly has to descend to cold depths in search of prey.
The whale shark retains heat by being very large, the white shark has developed a special regulation system for it in the gills, but the scalloped hammerhead shark cannot do these tricks.
The shark species lives in tropical coastal areas where it is generally nice and warm, but regularly dives to depths of almost 1000 meters where it is sometimes only 4 degrees. So how does this shark keep it warm enough to hunt there?
Thanks to a small biodegradable implant that measures depth, water temperature, activity, movement and body temperature in the shark, the researchers now think they have the answer. They saw that the sharks managed to keep their body temperature high until they swam back towards the warmer surface water. Then he took off very quickly.
What the researchers think is that the sharks hold their breath to keep warm in the depths. By closing their mouth and gills, they come into contact with the cold water less. The sudden drop in body temperature when swimming up again would then be due to the moment when they start breathing again and cold water flows through the gills again.
More research is needed to confirm the discovery, but if true, it could be a tactic used by many more marine animals than previously thought. Another interesting thing to study, then, is how did these sharks’ bodies adapt to cope with the falling oxygen levels in their blood while diving?
Read more about the research here: Hammerhead sharks are first fish found to ‘hold their breath’.
2023-05-15 19:01:48
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