Video: Walking shark discovered in Indonesia

A new species of walking shark has been spotted hobbling along the ocean floor off the coast of Halmahera island in Indonesia. Named Hemiscyllium halmahera after the island, the epaulette shark takes steps with its paddle-like fins, resulting in a peculiar, wriggling gait.

The clumsy footwork, similar to that of salamanders, could be a clue as to how the first land animals got about when they crawled out of the prehistoric seas. Researchers from the ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research in Vancouver, Canada, studied the gait of other epaulette sharks as a probable model for the movement of those early vertebrates.

(Image: © Conservation International/photo by Mark Erdmann)


Other researchers are more dubious. Rainer Froese from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany, points out that epaulette sharks’ gait contrasts with the movement of coelacanths. These fish are hailed as living fossils because they have hardly evolved for millions of years and their fins are thought to be closely related to the limbs of land-dwellers. “The coelacanth shows no walking behaviour at all,” says Froese. H. halmahera, on the other hand, “definitely is not a living fossil but one of the ‘modern’ sharks,” he says.

“There are several other species of weird fish that also seem to walk, such as frogfish,” he adds.

The shark’s walking could be an adaptation to life in coral reefs. There it is useful to be able to creep into crevices for shelter or to find food, says Luis Lucifora from the National University of Misiones in Argentina. The animals typically stroll around at night to forage for small fish and invertebrates, he says.

Researchers from Conservation International, based in Arlington, Virginia, and the Western Australian Museum in Welshpool, made the new find, which is the ninth species of walking shark to be discovered.

Journal reference: Aqua International Journal of Ichthyology, vol 19, p 123