大象传媒

Carpet shark walking further due to climate change

The epaulette sharkImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

The Epaulette shark uses its fins to walk

A species of shark which can walk on land has evolved to travel a greater distance in order to cope with climate change.

Researchers believe the epaulette shark has adapted to better cope with warming seas.

This type of carpet shark lives in reefs, but unlike other sharks, it can walk both in and out of water, using its fins as legs!

Although it can't breathe out of water, it can survive for a long time on land.

How? By slowing down its heartrate and breathing. By powering down its brain the little shark can go without oxygen for much longer than humans ever could.

But now new research has suggested that, while it could previously survive for about an hour without oxygen, it can now go for up to two hours.

It can also walk up to 30 metres, almost the length of two buses.

Biologists from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and research partners in Australia looked at the movement of the epaulette shark at different ages.

Image source, Getty Images

The study said that studying its behaviour has allowed them to see how the shark and also perhaps other related species had the "ability to move within and away from challenging conditions in their habitats".

Researchers said that the shark's abilities may not only be the key to survival but also "be related to their sustained physiological performance under challenging environmental conditions, including those associated with climate change."