Australian bull shark: crusher mouth, poisonous fins and spiral eggs (8 photos)

What could be worse than a healthy shark two meters long? That's right, a poisonous shark with a terrible bone crusher in its mouth! Meet the Australian bull shark - a combo of monstrous qualities on a fish shell. Of course, everyone is already tired of jokes about Australia and its wild inhabitants. But, guys, it’s not our fault that this continent is simply teeming with some kind of monsters!







When you come home from work and your dog comes up for a hug.

The Australian bull shark, or Port Jackson shark, is a grotesque cartilaginous fish from the genus of horned sharks. The largest among the other nine species, by the way! Females grow up to 165 centimeters in length, males - slightly smaller. Of course, it doesn’t look like a megalodon, but the prehistoric giant didn’t have the same bells and whistles as our heroine!



This is what all dreams look like at a temperature of 40.

The first thing that catches your eye when you see bull sharks is what the hell are they doing so close to shore?! The maximum depth where these comrades were recorded is only 275 meters. Fish have chosen the continental shelf and, unlike their large white relatives, do not swim into the open ocean. They can be found around the entire Australian continent, with the exception of part of the coastal strip in the very north.



Young man, we don’t swim behind buoys!

The second unusual thing about these fish is their monstrous crusher instead of the usual shark mouthparts. For this purpose, horned animals have two types of special teeth. The first are smaller, located at the anterior ends of the upper and lower jaw. They are pointed and serve to capture prey. The second, or lateral, are located further in the mouth, have a flattened shape and are needed for grinding food. With the help of such a complex mechanism, predators easily enjoy shells, crabs, gastropods, sea urchins and other echinoderm comrades. Such a diet is too tough for other types of sharks, but our heroes easily grind the hard shells into small pieces. What a deal - with such jaws!



This is what the jaw looks like.

Several devices help sharks catch all these living creatures: vision, electroreception and smell. The last one is the most interesting. Look at the fish's face and you will see two pretzels of skin framing the nostrils. Thanks to these gizmos and the especially sensitive epithelium inside the nose, fish are perfectly oriented by smell and fish out food directly from under the bottom substrate. To do this, they don’t even have to see what’s going on - so the rogulins began to hunt strictly at night.



My nose curls up into about the same tube when I go into a public toilet.

During the day, sharks huddle in secluded places without a strong current, such as underwater caves and shallows. There they spend most of the daylight hours, resting and conserving energy. “But wait! - Biology lovers will be indignant. - Don’t sharks need to swim all the time? Wouldn’t they suffocate if they just lay there at the bottom?”

Yes, many species of predators need to constantly move and swallow water to ensure a constant flow of liquid through the gills. But not in the case of the bull shark. They learned to breathe differently. To do this, fish pump water into the first of five gill slits and release it out through the other four. And breathe, and your mouth is free! That’s why horned beasts can rest peacefully lying down. As a bonus, they know how to breathe while catching small things from the bottom of the sea - so that the sand does not clog their gills.



When I took out chewing gum in class.

What about toxicity? Well, here we got a little creepy for the sake of saying it. In fact, all the toxicity is concentrated in only two small spines at the leading edge of the dorsal fins. They are very small and unnoticeable, but if you get hurt on them, it will be bad. The poison has a slight paralyzing effect. These spines help sharks defend against predators such as great white sharks and sea lions. However, these rare attacks are nothing compared to the complete genocide of eggs of this shark species. Yes, this is another difference from most toothy predators. Instead of producing offspring live birthI mean, bull sharks make... shells?



Females are distinguished by their enviable constancy of their nesting site. They come to lay eggs in exactly the same place where they did it last time.

The egg capsules are brown spiral-shaped cones 15 centimeters long. This cunning device is needed to prevent future children from drifting across the ocean. In addition, immediately after giving birth, females hide eggs in secluded places: sand, under stones, in rock crevices. True, this still does not save you from voracious predators. Within 10-12 months of incubation, up to 90% of all eggs die! That is, if out of 18 there are at least 2 left, it’s already a holiday. The young spend the first years of their lives in mixed groups in warm coastal bays. A little later, the fish go deeper and are divided into schools of males and females. Well, for the hatched young to continue the race, it will take at least 11 years for females and about 8 for males.



Do you need a drill? High quality, fresh! I just postponed it today!

Despite such a long reproduction period and high mortality of fry, today Australian horned sharks are not in danger of extinction. People don't hunt them. The meat of these fish is not suitable for food, and they do not pose a danger to humans. Yes, despite the terrible physiognomy, not a single person has ever died in an encounter with these rogulins. Only once did the fish try to attack the diver, but could not even bite through the skin. These are the poisonous tooth crushers - scary, but absolutely safe!