Photo: Image: Daniela Ceccarelli

It may be a dog-eat-dog up here, but down in the oceans, it's a shark-eat-shark world. Daniela Ceccarelli of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies snapped this photo of a tasselled wobbegong shark eating another shark:

Wobbegongs usually lie in wait on the sea floor for a passing fish or a tasty invertebrate to swim by and then ambush their prey. This one got lucky with a brown-banded bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum), and was in the process of swallowing it whole and head first. The wobbegong's appetite for large meals is helped by its dislocating jaw, large gape and rearward-pointing teeth.

While wobbegongs eating sharks has been recorded before from stomach contents, this is the first time it has been photographed in action.

Plush Shark Hat – $19.95

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Are you still looking for the perfect gift for your favorite man-eater. Get them the Plush Shark Hat from the NeatoShop. This adorable plush hat is shaped like a ferocious man-eating shark with super cute buggy eyes.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more hilarious Headgear and Valentine’s Day fun!

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Many of the pools in this list are spectacular because of their location or view, but the pool at the Golden Nugget Hotel in Las Vegas has a shark aquarium in the middle of it! The salt-water aquarium is separated from the swimming area, but only by glass -and they even have a water slide running through the shark enclosure! Link -via the Presurfer

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world’s first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.

“It’s very surprising because no one’s ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination,” Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.

“This is evolution in action.”

Dr. Evil would definitely approve! Link (Photo: Pascal Geraghty)

After mating, a female produces as many as 40 fertilized embryos, separated between two separate wombs. The embryos take nearly a year to fully develop, but they begin hunting long before that. After about two months, their own yolk sacs go dry. Hungry, they start eating their brothers and sisters. After the rampant in utero cannibalization, only one shark — the biggest and strongest — is left in each womb.

At birth they’re three feet long and experienced hunters, with a good chance of survival. But the tiny brood size, nearly year-long gestation period, and relatively restricted maternal capacity — after giving birth, mothers must wait a year to reproduce again — limit the number of young sharks.

Read more about this research in artificial shark gestation at Wired Science. Link

(Image credit: Port Stephens Fisheries Institute)

Researchers bathed lab-grown human endothelial cells—the type that line blood vessels—in varying concentrations of squalamine before introducing  dengue virus. At the highest concentration of the chemical, none of the human cells became infected, nor suffered any visible ill effects from the squalamine.

Researchers also tested squalamine’s ability to prevent replication of the hepatitis B and D viruses in cultured human liver cells. In cells treated with squalamine, viral replication was reduced 10-fold.

Squalamine has antibiotic, fungicidal, and anti-protozoan properties. It kills a wide variety of pathogens and one study found it could be used to treat multidrug-resistant bacteria. Researchers are also investigating its ability to treat cancer and fight macular degeneration.

Link -via Discover | Image Credit OCVA

Flying Clownfish Air Swimmers - $39.95

We are excited to announce that Air Swimmers are back in stock at the NeatoShop. Now you can get your very own remote controlled balloon shaped like either a Clownfish (shown) or Flying Shark.  Hurry! We have a very limited supply of these fantastic remote controlled balloons.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Toys & Games!

Link

Shark Baby Bathrobe (Pink) – $29.95

Shark week may be over, but the fin has just begun.  Behold the terry-iffic-sea-inspired Shark Baby Bathrobe from the NeatoShop.  That’s right, the original Shark Baby Bathrobe (Blue) is now available in pink for your perfectly sweet predator. Why? Because even girly girls can love sharks.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more adorable Baby & Kids items!

Link

]]> http://www.neatorama.com/2011/09/02/shark-baby-bathrobe-pink/feed/ 0 http://www.neatorama.com/2011/08/05/a-tribute-to-shark-week/ http://www.neatorama.com/2011/08/05/a-tribute-to-shark-week/#comments Sat, 06 Aug 2011 01:12:00 +0000 Miss Cellania http://www.neatorama.com/?p=50827

In honor of Shark Week, I Can Has Cheezburger posted a collection of funny image macros featuring (what else) sharks! You could call them LOLsharks. This one is my personal favorite. You can see all seven at the site. Link

Great White Shark 3D Anatomy Model - $24.95

Are you crazy about sharks?  You need the Great White Shark 3D Anatomy Model from the NeatoShop! This amazingly detailed 3D puzzle of the great white shark is made of 20 fantastic pieces.  It comes complete with a stand and illustrated guide book. Get to know this ferocious predator today!

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more terrifyingly fabulous Toys & Games!

Link

One of the most classic recurring sketches in Saturday Night Live history, Chevy Chase’s Land Shark character was basically a shark who would coerce its victims into opening their doors by pretending to be plumbers, repairmen or, in this clip, a member of Unicef.

Once the unsuspecting people opened their doors, the Land Shark would eat them whole, making a comment on the ridiculousness of the hysteria over sharks after the release of Jaws.

That’s my favorite, but there are sharks for every generation in the list at Ranker. Some text NSFW. Link

Shark Mask – $2.95

Are you looking for a unique gift for a germaphobe?  Get them the Shark Mask from the NeatoShop.  This mask makes it cool to be afraid of germs.  Now bring on the hand sanitizer because it’s time to party!

More Printed Masks available.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fabulous Apparel & Accessories.

Link

Whether you are the Jaws type or The Little Mermaid type, you’ll love this clever swimsuit that features both! Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

You remember the Sy-Fy movie Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, in which an oversized shark leaped from the ocean and snagged an airliner? That was fantasy, but there are real sharks that can leap up to ten feet above the water! Chris and Monique Fallows of Apex Shark Expeditions have been following and photographing great whites and other sharks for 16 years. You can see 19 of their amazing pictures at National Geographic. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

(Image credit: Chris Fallows)

(YouTube link)

How would you like to do this for a living? Cristina Zenato is a shark handler. Underwater videographer and conservationist Joe Romeiro captures her interacting with sharks in this lovely video.  I found it mesmerizing although I question why anyone would want to balance a shark on their hand.

Link – Via Inspiration Green

“All of a sudden something hit the side of the boat,” Kresse told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “He ends up landing on the back of the boat.”

The mako shark had apparently been in a rush to feed. It began thrashing around, and Kresse said he and his crew couldn’t get close to the 375-pound fish to toss it back in the water. It damaged the boat before dying several hours later.

Kresse, who has been fishing since he was a child, said the unplanned catch was a shock. Just unloading it was a challenge because it was so heavy.

“We had to use a forklift to get it off the boat when we got to the dock,” Kresse said.

Fish and Wildlife officials will not cite Kresse for catching the shark without a permit, because the catch was the shark’s doing. Link -via Arbroath

Shark Bite Oven Mitt – $13.95

Spring has sprung!  That means it’s time to clean out those kitchen drawers. Your first order of business should be to toss out that old crusty thing you call an oven mitt and get yourself the new Shark Bite Oven Mitt from the NeatoShop.

Want to know what’s really great about the Shark Bite Oven Mitt from the NeatoShop? Everyone will be so distracted by its awesomeness that they won’t notice the giant pile of dirty dishes in you always leave in your sink.

Be sure to check out all the awesome Cooking Gadgets available at the NeatoShop.

Captain Linda Cavitt caught some footage of a 20-foot basking shark from the safety of the pier in Panama City Beach, Florida. Josh, the kayaker, was a bit closer.

yes he was eaten part 2? is coming….j/k no it’s a docile basking shark, they eat plankton. The kayaker did jump in the water and swim with the shark though but as soon as Josh grabbed it’s tail the shark swam away from him

Yes, he really did. -via BroBible

The ChumBuddy is a combination sleeping bag, body pillow, and plush shark. It makes for an awesome photo opportunity as well -all your friends will want to try it out! Link

The monster from the Sy-Fy movie has been enshrined in plush! This is a one-of-a-kind Sharktopus was hand-made by Suzannah Ashley. See more pictures at her website. Link -via Laughing Squid

Remember Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus? The sequel is going to be even sillier! Bonus: starring Jaleel White, whom you may remember as Steve Urkel. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Ooh, this one is so cute: the Shark Baby Bathrobe from the NeatoShop, complete with a smiling shark hoodie, dorsal fin and shark tail’s bottom.

Mom and dad are going to fall for this terry-ific sea-inspired robe – hook, line and little stinker!

After a refreshing bath time for baby, they’ll want to wrap their wiggly, wet one in something cozy, absorbent and cute. Baby Aspen’s Terry Shark Bathrobe is reel-y neat and oh, so fin!

Link | More Fun Baby Stuff

In their tribute to Shark Week, BroBible compiled a list of sharks that appeared in literature, films, and TV shows, ranked from the ridiculous to the nightmare-inducing. If you can identify the shark pictured here from memory, you can probably guess where it ranked. Link

1. Sawshark

(Image credit: Flickr user Gore Fiendus/Jerry Frausto)

There are seven known species of sawsharks (Pristiophoriformes) that have long snouts with teeth, but they are not related to sawfish (although sawsharks are fish). They swim along the floor of the ocean and use their snouts exactly as you would imagine: they smack their prey sideways to disable them. Sawsharks eat squid, crustaceans, and small fish. They look much more dangerous than they are.

2. Basking Shark

The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is the second-largest of all living shark species, with only the whale shark growing larger. They normally grow to 20-26 feet long, with the biggest confirmed specimen measuring over 40 feet long! They have mouths up to three feet wide, which they hold open while swimming. That’s because they are filter feeders that scoop up plankton, crustaceans, and small fish as they swim.

3. Hammerheads

(Image credit: Flickr user David Biesack)

There are eight or nine different species of hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna), named for their unusual shape. The reason behind the peculiar shape of the shark’s head was debated for many years. Scientists speculated that the distance between the shark’s eye gave it some kind of advantage. Recent research confirms this. Hammerhead sharks can see a range of 360 degrees vertically. They can easy see behind them with a slight turn of the head, and most importantly, their two eyes have a huge overlap of field compared to other sharks, indicating they have excellent binocular vision. Hammerhead sharks are able to judge distances well by sight alone. They also differ from other sharks in that they tend to swim in schools and they can develop a tan when exposed to sunlight.

4. Megamouth Shark

Is there a more descriptive name for any animal than a megamouth shark? The megamouth (Megachasma pelagios) was first discovered in 1976. It is a filter feeder with very small teeth, but swims with its huge mouth open to scoop up jellyfish and plankton. The megamouth shark is a rare creature and is rarely seen. There have been only 41 confirmed sightings, including one last year in which a megamouth was caught and eaten by fishermen in the Philippines. See a video of a live megamouth at YouTube.

5. Thresher Shark

The thresher shark (Alopiidae) is most notable because of its long upper caudal (tail) fin which may account for half the shark’s total length. The thresher shark eats small fish, and will sometimes tap the water with its tail to herd schools of fish into tight spots, making them easier to eat. They can also use their tails to stun their prey with a good smack. Thresher sharks are usually 10-15 feet long, and can grow up to 20 feet long -but remember, about half of that length is tail fin.

6. Frilled Shark

(YouTube link)

The frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) comes very close to our image of a sea serpent from ancient lore. These sharks are not particularly large at about six feet long with a slender body, but they are very flexible and can move in a rather un-sharklike way. When the shark flares its neck frill, it can look quite menacing. However, they are rarely seen by humans as they prefer to hunt in deep ocean depths.

7. Cookie Cutter Shark

The cookie cutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis) got that strange name from its habit of biting chunks of flesh from its prey by wrenching its body around in a circular motion after sinking its teeth into a fish too big to eat whole. Ouch! The cookie cutter shark reaches only around twenty inches in length, but has been known to bite into whales, submarines, and people. It has a small bioluminescent patch that fools other creatures into thinking it is a much smaller fish than it really is while the rest of the cookie cutter fish waits in the dark.

8. Goblin Shark

The goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) is a deep water species that is rarely seen by humans. It is believed to be an ancient species even by shark standards. It has an unusually long snout, which you’d think would make it hard for this shark to eat, except that the goblin shark has one strange feature to compensate. It has jaws that can protrude out of its face, like the alien in the movie Alien.

(YouTube link)

If you think that may give you nightmares, just keep telling yourself that goblin sharks live way too deep to be a threat to humans.

9. Whorl Shark

Shark fossils show that weird sharks are not just a modern development. Although we know little about it, the whorl shark (Helicoprion) is a truly strange fish that lived 280-225 million years ago. The whorl shark’s distinction is a spiral of teeth it left behind. Modern sharks continue to grow teeth throughout their lives and shed old teeth. Ancient sharks grew new teeth, but kept the old teeth as well. In some species, old teeth migrated to the face to make room for teeth in the jaw. In the whorl shark, old teeth were just rotated around. But where in the shark were these teeth? Full fossils have not yet been found, so some scientists believe the spiral teeth were in the front of lower jaw as shown here. Others believe the spirals were in the shark’s throat like an internal circular saw, as you can see in this recreation.

10. Megalodon

(Image credit: Flickr user Steve Flamingo)

As far as we know, megalodon (Carcharocles megalodon) was the biggest shark that ever existed. It grew up to 60 feet long and consumed over a ton of food every day. The word megalodon means “big tooth”, appropriate as the megalodon had a bite more powerful than a T. rex, which it used to eat whales. Megalodon lived 25 to one million years ago, although it survives today in film and in our nightmares.

These weird sharks are listed in no particular order. Which do you think is the weirdest?

Celebrating Shark Week? What better way than to eat little nosh with a dash of salt and pepper from these shark-fin-shaped shakers from the NeatoShop? Check it out: Link | More Fun Kitchen Stuff

Forget water wings, if these Sea Squirt swim assist vest and life jackets were invented way back when I was learning how to swim, I’d totally wear ‘em. Heck, I’d probably still wear ‘em now if they made adult sizes: Link – via Blog on a Toothpick

If you love this sort of stuff, you’ll love our baby and kid blog NeatoBambino. Go check it out!

Much like Alfred Hitchcock’s shower scene, this movie made audiences rethink potential sources of Things to Watch Out For. The sophomore effort of one of filmmaking’s living legends, Steven Spielberg, it still ranks as one of the world’s best-loved movies, with a commanding 100% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

My personal favorite element of this classic flick is the way the shark was represented; yes, I loved the acting performances of each and every human character, but the character of the shark upstaged everyone. And that shark’s name is Bruce. It’s hilarious to note that the name was attached to the mechanical shark(s) in honor of Spielberg’s lawyer, also named Bruce.

Bruce wasn’t the easiest of actors to work with, either. Link

April Pignataro and Michael Curry of New York City got married yesterday. The bride wore a white wetsuit and the groom wore a traditional black wetsuit as they climbed inside a 120,000 gallon shark tank to take their vows at Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead, N.Y. Both are experienced divers, and said their “I dos” over a radio transmitter with an officiant who did not get in the tank.

“My mom was against it,” Pignataro said. “She was concerned that my makeup and hair were going to get messed up in the water. But . . . I’m a tomboy. Hair and makeup don’t mean a whole lot to me.”

Link -via The Huffington Post

As he slid backwards what happened next is as frightening as it is unimaginable.  Rawlinson ended up on the back of the  ocean’s most feared predator.

“I was onto the shark’s back…anywhere from about five to ten seconds.  It was so strange that everything was so slow and yet again so fast.”

Rawlinson credits his escape from the large, toothy fish on his ability to stay calm.  As he straddled the fish, he released his surf leash from around his leg and slowly slid off.

From the bite marks left on the surfboard, Rawlinson and marine biologist Terry Lilley, who was shooting video underwater nearby, estimate the shark was around 14 feet long. Link -via Fark

Every culture has some traditional dishes that make those from elsewhere cringe. The author of this post heard from quite a few people in India that pizza is clearly disgusting! Here are some other offbeat delicacies from around the world. I think I would have to try some of these before I make a judgement. For example, in Iceland, you may encounter Hákarl, or rotten shark.

Typically, a Greenland or basking shark is the Hákarl shark of choice. First, gut and behead it. Next, place it in a shallow hole, dug in gravelly-sand, then cover it with the sand and gravel. Place stones on top of the sand in order to press the shark and extract any fluids out of the body. Allow the shark to ferment for 6-12 weeks. Following the curing period, cut the shark into strips and hang them to dry for several months. During this drying period a brown crust will develop. Remove the crust prior to cutting the shark into small pieces and presto, ready to serve.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by mrmunchies.

Scientists keep discovering extinct species that hardly seem possible outside of cartoons. If they were still around, we might not be! Web Urbanist shows us some of the biggest, fiercest, and weirdest of animals that are no more. For instance, the whorl shark had its own “jaw saw”!

Whorl Sharks
were similar to their modern cousins despite jetting along almost 300 million years ago. While modern sharks have rows of serrated teeth ready to replace any that fall out, the whorl shark has an interesting lower jaw that looked like a circular saw, where newer teeth would push older teeth further along the line. There’s some debate about the placement of the tooth structure, but regardless of its location in the mouth or deeper in the throat, it had a startlingly unique appearance.

Link

[Michelle McComb and Timothy Tricas] then placed sensors on the shark’s skin to measure its brain activity, specifically testing whether the animal would react to beams of light shone from different locations around the tank.

By doing so, they could measure each shark’s field of vision.

"This study confirmed that hammerhead sharks have anterior binocular vision," says Dr McComb.

That means they can see directly ahead while swimming and can accurately judge distance, particularly to any prey they hunt. What’s more, the researchers show that the degree of overlap between the two eyes increases with head width.

Link

Previously on Neatorama: Stop! Hammerhead Time

The young sharks have been taken to a “nursery” tank with some baby eagle rays, where visitors can see them before they are released into the wild.

Link (Photo: Richard Robinson)

Update (11/11/2009): The mother and her eight babies are all doing fine.  Link to Daily Mail story with video.

What do you get when you combine a certain 80s fad and sharks? Here’s a T-shirt designed by the always awesome Nathan Mazur of Scared of Bees and brought to you by MC Hammerhead, the hippest of all sharks. From the Neatorama Shop: Link

“That cannibal thing is what great whites do; they’ll eat anything, including their own kind,” Hugh Edwards, a local shark expert, told Australia’s 7 News. “It would be sensible not to swim in that area for a little while.”

Link -via Dave Barry’s Blog

Thankyou for the surprise inspection and invitation to participate in the next. I appreciate you underlining the text at the bottom of the page which I would otherwise have surely mistaken for part of the natural pattern in the paper. I was going to clean the apartment but had so many things on my ‘to do’ list that I decided to treat them all equally and draw pictures of sharks instead. I have attached one for your honest appraisal.

I have read through your list of chores and intend to rectify the situation by wrapping my entire body in eighteen rolls of super absorbent Thick’n'thirsty® paper towels, hosing down the apartment, then rolling around on the floor and rubbing myself up and down walls. I will cover the more stubborn marks with Liquid Paper. I will also get back to you in regards to the premises being inspected in another two weeks, my agreement to do so will depend on availability and not wanting to.

The string of correspondence between David and Peter the manager gets more surreal from this point. Link -via reddit

The newfound ghostshark belongs to the “big black chimeras,” a group whose species number has exploded in recent years, thanks to improved diagnostic techniques, according to the new study, published in the September issue of the journal Zootaxa.

Chimeras display some unusual features not seen in other living animals, Long said.

Male chimeras, for example, have retractable sexual appendages sprouting from their foreheads. These organs, which resemble a spiked club at the end of a stalk, may be used to stimulate a female or to pull her closer—though these are still assumptions, Long said.

Link

(image credit: MBARI)

Fishermen in the Philippines accidentally caught a megamouth shark, one of the rarest animals in the world with only 40 documented sightings ever recorded.

What did they do afterwards? Why, they ate it, of course …

The 1,100-pound (500-kilogram) 13-foot (4-meter) megamouth died while struggling in the fishermen’s net on March 30 off Burias island in the central Philippines. It was taken to nearby Donsol in Sorsogon province, where it was butchered and eaten, said Gregg Yan, spokesman for WWF-Philippines.

Yan said a WWF Donsol Project Manager Elson Aca took pictures of the megamouth and tried to dissuade the fishermen from eating it. Shark meat is the main ingredient in a local delicacy.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.

(Links open in a new browser window/tab)

	Geophysical Survey of the World of Warcraft James Wallis gave an interesting talk at Interesting Vancouver 2008 (see what I did there?) about doing a geophysical survey of ... Azeroth, the virtual world in the insanely popular World of Warcraft. It turns out that WoW is really, really small: Link
	Human Slip & Slide This is probably this middle-aged, balding Japanese man's lifelong dream: to ... um, slide over a row of oiled-up women in bikinis! (It doesn't end there, folks, there's also an underwear stuffing contest!) Where do I sign up? Link
	Double Fail at the Motorcycle Race Track What happens when you hold a motorcycle race after it rains? Here's a "double" fail at the track - I don't know which one hurts more! Link
	Shark Does a Spinning Jump Behind a Surfer Check out this video clip of a spinner shark doing a spinning jump (shoryuken?) behind a surfer. Link (about time mark 0:10)
	History of the Internet Here's a really neat animated infographic clip by Melih Bilgil about how the Interweb came to be. Link (If you like this, check out Neatorama's 10 Things You Should Know About the Internet and Wonderful World of Early Computing, Take a Stroll Down Computing Memory Lane)

For more the web's most interesting videos, check out: VideoSift.

“Yesterday morning at around 9:30 AM, prior to the resort’s waterscape opening to guests, a 12+-year-old female reef shark jumped over an 18 inch wide and 1 foot high sustaining structure into the resort’s Leap of Faith water slide.

The Atlantis Aquarists believe the shark was startled by an unusual circumstance that we have no way of defining completely. In the over ten years guests have experienced the Leap of Faith, the reef shark itself, harmless to humans as it is fed regularly by our staff, had shown no previous incidences of leaping out of the water in the marine habitat …

The aquarium staff immediately retrieved the shark from the pool, but the chlorinated water had already poisoned the fish. She died shortly after. Link -via Simply Left Behind