Joel Kontinen
A study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B has saId that the bonnethead shark, long thought to be a strict carnivore. Sharks Eat Seagrass, the publication tells us. . Reminds me of the PRE-fall world
"’ Until now, most people thought that seagrass consumption was incidental when these sharks were hunting for crabs, etc. that live in the seagrass beds,’ study co-author Samantha Leigh, an expert in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine, told AFP.”
The team found that the seagrass can form up to 62 percent of the bonnethead diet.
“Over the course of three weeks, the team conducted a series of lab-based trials in which they fed bonnethead sharks a diet of 90 percent seagrass and 10 percent squid.
They then analysed how much of the nutrients the animals digested, and how much they excreted.
Not all carnivores can digest plant material efficiently, but sharks fed the seagrass-heavy diet all gained weight, the team found.”
Sharks are living fossils that haven’t changed in “400 million years.”
Source:
Ward, Hazel, 2018. 'Carnivore' sharks have a stomach for greens: study. Phys.org. (5 September).
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