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Stunning new footage shows a duad of exceedingly elusive megamouth sharks ( Megachasma pelagios ) swimming together off the coast of San Diego .
The video , conquer by Martes pennanti in other September 2022 , may show the thick - dwelling beasts in a courtship ritual and is one of just a handful of sightings of the beast alive . In the 50 class since the species was discovered , there have been just 273 sighting , most involving sharks caught in fishing cogwheel . Only five megamouth sharks have been pick out swimming freely in the state of nature . Never before had two been seen swimming together .
Two megamouth sharks have been caught on video for the first time ever.(Image credit: David Stabile)
Now , a new study analyzing the footage suggests that the two sharks were betroth in courtship or mating behaviors .
" The curiosity of these fishermen benefited the field as a whole , " study lead author Zachary Skelton , a alumna student at the University of California , San Diego , told Live Science . " The 10 minutes the fisherman had with the sharks contains the only knowledge we have on megamouth shark sociality . "
The baffling megamouth shark can arise to be 18 feet ( 5.5 metre ) in length and count up to 2,679 pounds ( 1,215 kg ) . These bulging - head creatures are filter feeders that sift food from the weewee entrance in their enormous mouths . Yet , despite their size and distinctive feature , megamouth sharks dodge spying until 1976 .
The smaller of the two sharks is male and can be seen closely following the female megamouth shark.(Image credit: David Stabile)
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" It ’s jolly darn rarefied to see one , let alone two at a time swimming at the surface during the day,“Christopher G. Lowe , managing director of the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach , who was not imply in the study , told Live Science in an email . To better infer megamouth shark demeanour , Skelton and colleagues analyzed the footage in light of whatever they could discover in the lit on the social behaviors of other filter - self-feeder shark , such as basking sharks ( Cetorhinus maximus ) and hulk sharks ( Rhincodon typus ) . " Because the encounter was so brief , we had to heavily bank on other studies and specie to judge and make gumption of why the sharks were at the surface , why they were together , and why at that specific place , " Skelton said .
Visible male sex Hammond organ known as claspers suggest the smaller of the two sharks was male . And although the team could not confirm the sex activity of the other shark , they determined that it was probably distaff , based on a lack of obvious claspers and a serial of scars on its back similar to the union scrape found on female shark from other metal money .
The video shows the rarely seen megamouth sharks in a possible courtship display.(Image credit: David Stabile)
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Little is still known about the biology and ecology of the megamouth sharks.(Image credit: David Stabile)
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Given that the male was intimately following the putative female shark and that neither shark was seen attempting to feed , the researcher concluded that the footage likely meditate a courtship exhibit . The termination were published March 13 in the journalEnvironmental Biology of Fishes .
" This anecdotal watching has all the hallmarks of precopulatory mating behavior,“Carl Meyer , an associate researcher at the Shark Research Lab at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology who was not involved in the study , told Live Science in an email . " We still jazz relatively little about the biota and ecology of megamouth sharks so this reflection is an interesting addition to our apprehension of this species . "
Neil Hammerschlag , manager of the Shark Research & Conservation Program at the University of Miami , who was not involved in the subject area , was likewise impressed . " The paper does a good chore of ponder what could be occurring , " he recount Live Science in an email . " The social behavior of [ megamouth ] shark is still a chip of a disgraceful boxwood to scientists , and notice like these are exciting , sire a cluster of questions and theory that can be further studied . "
