Not all sharks live in open water and look really ‘sharky’. Many shark species have a more exotic look, and wait for their prey in lair. One of those is the tasseled wobbegong. When a prey swims by, it opens its large mouth and swallows it. And that prey can sometimes indeed be a shark…
This tasseled wobbegong (Eucrossorhinus dasypogon) was encountered by researchers on the Great Barrier Reef. It swallowed a bamboo shark. On the Barrier Reef, it is protected, but in the other regions where it lives, North Australia, Indonesia and Papua New-Guinea, it is not, and was therefore listed as Near Threatened on IUCN’s Red List, due to suspected significant population declines and predicted to continue within a large proportion of its range.
This wobbegong feeds on bottom fishes and invertebrates and has an average length of 1,80 m.
More info about the wobbegong: http://www.fishbase.se/summary/Eucrossorhinus-dasypogon.html
Shark eats shark, credit Credit: Tom Mannering
