The walking shark that can survive hours out of water

Sorry I’ve been neglecting my blog lately. Life is, and will continue to be for the next couple months, very busy. In lieu of actually writing a post, here’s a fascinating look at the walking shark from the excellent blog Odd Organisms.

It’s nighttime on the Great Barrier Reef, and as the tide slips out to sea it uncovers a much tougher environment. Chunks of coral are exposed and only small pools of shallow water remain where there is little oxygen available. Hardly the place you expect to find a shark.

But! This is not your ordinary shark (it’s odd organisms for gosh sakes). No, this is an epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum). A wriggly, wormy, wonder shark who’s amazing adaptations to it’s complex environment include an incredible tolerance to low oxygen and high CO2 levels, PLUS, the ability to walk across the reef! Walk! 

So, it’s walking sharks and crucian carp on the blog today (more on crucian carp later, for now just accept the rhyme) as we explore the awesome adaptations of the epaulette shark. The first shark to have come anywhere near, rivaling my fascination for the…

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Ethan Harvey

You can find my games at https://ethanharvey.itch.io, and I occasionally blog about under-appreciated wildlife at OverlookedNature.com.

2 thoughts on “The walking shark that can survive hours out of water”

  1. Thank you for the kind words, and glad they let me stumble across your blog too 🙂 Good luck for the busy months ahead!

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