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These sharks have evolved to walk on land—and they did it quickly
Four new species of this colorful yet overlooked group of reef dwellers have been found since 2008, a new study says.
Sharks have roamed the world’s oceans for hundreds of millions of years. In that time, many species have barely changed. But some strange sharks are still evolving—and have even learned to walk. Meet the walking sharks.
These three-foot-long creatures live near Australia, and, as their name implies, move their pectoral fins in the front and pelvic fins in the back to plod along the seafloor—or even atop coral reefs, outside the water, at low tide. Such mobility allows the sharks to wriggle between tide pools and different areas of the reef to prey upon crabs, shrimp, small fish—just about anything they can find.
“During low tides, they became the top predator on the reef,” says Christine Dudgeon, a