Why would these animals kill their siblings?
Shownotes
Would you have won in the shark-baby thunderdome?
It’s common for siblings to fight – for food, for attention, or to establish dominance. In many cases, parents step in to make sure the rivalry doesn’t go too far – not just out of, you know, love and whatnot, but because the more babies you have, the more genes you pass on.
But the Sand Tiger Shark takes sibling rivalry to an extreme. A mama shark can incubate as many as 20 eggs at a time in her uterus, so theoretically, she could birth 20 babies at once, but all those babies would be way too small to thrive: they couldn't hunt or escape predators. So instead, female sand tiger sharks have evolved reproductive systems that trap their babies inside after hatching, forcing them to snack on their own siblings to survive. After several months, the sole survivor is born: it’s now a meter long, with a full mouth of razor-teeth – and ready to take on the open ocean.
MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC
If you like what we do, you can help us!
- Sign up to our newsletter: http://news.minuteearth.com
- Share with your friends and family
- Leave us a comment (we read them!)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices