Sharkophile

The latest shark news, photos and videos

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Sharks used to predict Florida election results

Politics isn’t the place for pinfish, especially this election season in Florida, where there is blood in the water and the predators are circling. Sometimes you have to leave the polling to the sharks. Which is why Nova Southeastern University and the Guy Harvey Research Institute have brought back a team of satellite-tagged short-fin mako sharks to […]

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Grant seeks to unlock mysteries of the megalodon

There’s very few things we know about the megalodon shark for certain. We know that it was one of the largest marine predators on the planet, reaching lengths of over 60 feet. We know that it first appeared in the fossil record nearly 20 million years ago and that it indisputably went extinct nearly 2.5 […]

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Study: Whale sharks can live up to 130 years

We know very little about the growth and reproductive biology of whale sharks, the world’s largest fish species. Because they’re listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, scientists are looking for ways to fill this gap in our knowledge without overly disturbing or distressing individual whale sharks. Scientists at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in […]

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Genome sequencing could unlock secrets of shark evolution

Because of their slow rate of evolution, researchers are able to look at a shark’s DNA as a sort of “living fossil,” according to a new study by the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research in Japan. Scientists, led by Riken’s Shigehiro Kuraku, analyzed shark genomes using cutting-edge DNA sequencing technologies and comparative bioinformatics on three species […]

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Scientists explore “White Shark Cafe” in remote Pacific

 Using satellite tags and deep-water remote operated vehicles, a team of researchers were able to take a closer look at what has been dubbed as a “White Shark Cafe” in open water between California and Hawaii. The month-long expedition, which was a joint effort by scientists from Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station, the Monterey Bay […]

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Shark poop may soon be key to surfer safety

Researchers from from UC Santa Barbara and the U.S. Geological Survey, along with members of California State University Long Beach and Central Michigan University, have found a new way to detect if large sharks — specifically great whites — had recently passed through an area. The team’s research, which used environmental DNA to track populations of […]

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Basking sharks have aerial breaching capabilities

Basking sharks may not be the lazy, lumbering ocean dwellers that they appear to be. A new study by researchers at Trinity College in Dublin and published in this month’s journal of Biology Letters, found that basking sharks have the same aerial capability as great white sharks when it comes to breaching out of the water. Basking […]

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Doctors use botox injection on sand tiger shark

A dermatologist may have devised a novel treatment for scoliosis occurring in sharks. Charles E. Crutchfield III, MD, along with the Minnesota Zoo’s veterinary staff, injected botox into a captive sand tiger shark that was suffering from scoliosis. Sharks in the wild, as well as in human care, can develop scoliosis. Some types of scoliosis are […]

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Study: Mass extinction led to shark diversity

A new study conducted by researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden and the University of New England in Australia, and published this week in Current Biology, suggests that modern shark biodiversity was triggered by the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event about 66 million years ago. As part of the study,  researchers explored how certain groups of sharks responded to […]