Scientists in Australia tagged a healthy 9-foot great white shark as part of program to track these animals. Four months later they found the tracking device washed up on a beach. Something—something really big—had eaten this apex predator. But what creature could dine on such ferocious prey?

The recovered tracking device showed a rapid temperature rise and a sudden 1,900-foot-deep plunge. It stayed there for many days, moving around and occasionally ascending to go down again until it finally reached the shore. That's all the information that scientists gathered from the tracking device.


The researchers believe the data shows that a super-predator gobbled the shark, then swam down at high speed, and kept going on with his life. The recorded temperature indicates that the tracking device was inside the mysterious monster's digestive system until it got out.

UPDATE: Mystery solved! Here's the shark killer.

Advertisement