- Science
- Laelaps
Sleeper Sharks Slurp Snoozing Seals
Greenland sharks eat seals. On the face of it, that doesn’t sound surprising. These huge Arctic sharks swim the same waters as the blubbery mammals, after all. But sleeper sharks aren’t quite like the graceful and quick archetypal sharks that fascinate and terrify us. The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) is squat, cigar-shaped fish that grows up to 21 feet long and looks like a pumped-up dogfish. When it moves, the great fish looks like it’s swimming in slow-motion. Yet, somehow, this painfully sluggish carnivore manages to catch much faster seals. Scavenging doesn’t explain the condition of the fresh seal remains found in dissected shark stomachs, nor shark-bitten seals that have survived attack. Exactly how the shark manages to catch seals