The sharks never stay quiet

At least one shark species has bark that can be chewed. Scientists report that clicks can be made.

During his doctoral studies at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, Carolyn NeederHe was currently studying shark hearing at Woods Hole Marine Facility in Massachusetts. When dealing with sharks during the experiment, she noticed one species – a hound (a rig called a rig)Mustelus lenticulatus) – It looked like it was making a metallic click.

“The sharks weren’t supposed to make noise, so I ignored it,” Nieder says. “And that was just happening.”

The ability to intentionally produce sounds is common among terrestrial animals, as the world full of bird verticals and mammalian plagues shows. However, underwater, many fish make noises by shaving objects or vibrating muscles, and in 2022 researchers reported that relatives near sharks can sometimes click when divers interfere. The shark sounds had not yet been officially explained.

To confirm the presence of the rig’s noise, Nieder and her colleagues brought 10 boys rigs into the lab, caught up in the waters of New Zealand’s North Island. There, they were placed in the tank with sensitive sound recording instruments. The team gently handled the sharks and found that all of them were clicking accordingly. Rigs seem to be the first shark known to produce sounds that are not associated with other actions, such as feeding or bumping into something.

Researchers believe that sharks may be producing sounds by snapping their jaws together. Just like click rays, the rig flattens the teeth, which can produce sharp sounds on the impact. Please listen to the following:

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Further research may check whether the cause of clicks and whether there is a feature. Nieder points out that because rigs are small sharks and potential prey for large animals, clicks can play a role in defense when animals are bitten or gripped.

“It could be a bit confusing for predators,” she says. It is also possible that clicks play a role in hunting, she adds, including scaring and inclusive shark crustacean prey.

“This has been seen for a long time, but is a potentially very important area of ​​shark biology,” he says. Aaron Rice He was not involved in research at Cornell University in New York.

When healthy production is widespread among sharks, their clicks may help them study populations that often decline rapidly, says Rice. He says there is a very rich sound data recorded from fish and whale studies, and it is possible that they also shot shark sounds. These can be used to determine if a shark is in the area and add another tool to monitor at-risk predators.

“[The finding] It represents something truly new and new discoveries in basic biology,” says Rice.