Shark scoops out flesh like melon baller
Posted by staff / July 8, 2011
Don’t let their size fool you. At only two feet, cookiecutter sharks can do serious damage by scooping out flesh with their unique jaws, leaving crater-like wounds.
Unlike other sharks, a cookiecutter’s teeth are connected at the bottom in the lower jaw. When feeding, the shark bites its victim and then rotates to remove a plug of flesh, “kind of like using a melon baller,” says George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida. In a new study, Burgess details the first attack on a live human by a cookiecutter shark.
During the March 16, 2009, incident the shark repeatedly attacked a long-distance swimmer attempting to cross the Alenuihaha Channel from Hawaii to Maui.
Full story at Futurity.
Photo credit: Kristen Grace and John Soward
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