You might imagine that sharks are some of the toughest animals in the oceans. Whilst this is true for some species, sharks do not materialise fully formed; they are quite vulnerable when they are young and small. This is especially true for species which reproduce by "oviparity" - laying eggs. As the mother does not watch over the eggs before they hatch, the young are extremely exposed to predators... But do these tiny embryos have some awareness of the threats around them? And some way to defend themselves? New research shows us that they do!
Some Sharks Start Life Within an Egg
The brownbanded bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum) is an oviparous species living in the tropical Indo Pacific from China to Australia. The female lays her eggs on the ocean floor, in shallow regions, like coral reefs. Whilst the female will often try to find a sheltered spot for the eggs, where they might be more difficult for predators to spot, she leaves them to develop on their own, without her protection. They hatch when they reach approximately 10–12 cm in length (Compagno, 1984).
The embryos remain within their leathery egg case for up to five months, whilst they develop. As the juvenile sharks are unable to escape predators by swimming away at this point, they have evolved to be harder for predators to detect. The patterns on the egg case camouflage it and, as the egg case is sealed tight, there is no exchange of fluid which might allow predators to smell the embryos (Kempster et al, 2013).
However, during the later stages of development, the bottom edge of the egg case starts to weaken and the seal opens. At this point predators are able to detect the embryos by "olfaction" (smell) and also by "mechanoreception" (detection of the displacement of water caused by the embryo moving). During the later stages of development, the embryos will begin to undulate their tail in order to circulate oxygenated sea water within the egg case. Clearly, this would massively increase their likelihood of detection by predators (Kempster et al, 2013).
Sharks Can Defend Themselves Before Birth!
However, recent research has shown us that these sharks are able to detect of predators and protect themselves before they are even hatched! In the lab, scientists simulated the presence of a predator by turning on electrodes; this tiny electrical current mimicked the natural electricity generated by predator. A beating heart, moving muscles and nerves firing all generate minuscule electrical fields. They then counted the tail beats and the gill movements, to see if these changed when the baby sharks sensed a predator was close (Kempster et al, 2013).
The discovered that embryos at an earlier stage of development did not show any response to the predator stimulus, but older embryos showed more and more of a response. At the later stages of embryonic development, the tiny sharks actually stopped beating their tails and curled it up around them when a predator was nearby. They also stopped moving their gills so much. Basically, they stayed very, very still and held their breath so they didn't get noticed. This kind of behaviour is known as a "freeze response" (Kempster et al, 2013).
They experts concluded that late-term embryos must be capable of "electroreception" and have an innate behavioural response, that they adopt to reduce their likelihood of detection. This means that these tiny sharks are much more aware than we previously thought and they have evolved advanced defensive behaviours to protect themselves from predators.... even before they are even born.
If you would like to learn more about shark embryos (and watch more adorable footage of sharks before they are born), you can check out Swimming in the Womb.
References
Compagno LJV (1984). Sharks of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of shark species known to date. FAO Fisheries Synopsis. Access online.
Kempster RM, Hart NS & Collin SP (2013). Survival of the stillest: Predator avoidance in shark embryos. PLoS ONE 8:1, e52551. Access online.
By Sophie A. Maycock for SharkSpeak
