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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Henry Nicholls

Zoology Notes 008: the shark that eats its siblings, in utero

A sand tiger shark
Embryonic sand tiger sharks will attack and eat each other inside their mother Photograph: Rafa Rivas/AFP/Getty Images

It makes for gruesome but fascinating reading.

In 1983, marine biologists published an in-depth study of the embryonic development of the sand tiger shark, (Carcharias taurus), also known as the grey nurse shark. The paper is noteworthy for one particular detail, summed up by the following sentence:

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