These tiny predators have glowing undersides that give off a vivid bright light, except for a dark collar around their necks. They spend the daytime at depths of up to 3,500 meters, but will approach the surface at night, as prey rarely ventures into their domain. Little is known about cookie-cutter sharks, as they are (thankfully) creatures of the deep. These are no minor wounds either, as the most severe wounds ever documented were 5 centimeters wide and 7 centimeters deep. They then sink their sharp teeth in and, using twisting motions, scoop out chunks of flesh, leaving behind bloody craters. It wasn’t until they started studying the mouth and saw-like teeth that they understood how dangerous a cookie-cutter shark’s bite could be.Īpparently, the sharks’ mobile tongues and large lips allow them to latch on to their prey by forming a vacuum on a smooth surface. It wasn’t until 1971, when Everet Jones discovered small conical pieces of flesh in the stomachs of cookie-cutter sharks that marine scientists began to realize that the deceptively small sharks could severely wound some of the ocean’s mightiest creatures.īefore Everett Jones’ breakthrough, people believed that the gruesome conical wounds often found on all sorts of marine life were caused by parasitic lice, lampreys, bacterial infections or some other mysterious creatures. Up to that point, the conical, deep wounds that researchers often documented on all sorts of marine life, from small fish to dolphins and even great white sharks, were a mystery. The cookie-cutter shark ( Isistius brasiliensis) was discovered in the early 19th century, by French naturalists, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that marine scientists realized just how brave and dangerous these small marine creatures could be.
0 kommentar(er)
