io9Toys & Collectibles

You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Wallet for All This Great New Jaws Mondo Merch

This year, Shark Week isn’t only on the Discovery Channel. The team at Mondo is in a munching mood too with a ton of shark-related merchandise themed to Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece Jaws. They’re doing an entire week of cool stuff, all of which you can see right now, exclusively on io9. First up, today at … Continued

EartherConservation

‘Ghost’ Fishing Gear Is a Bigger Threat to Sharks Than We Realized

Not even the oceans’ top predators can escape the ruinous embrace of humanity’s plastic waste, suggests new research. The study indicates that over recent decades, many hundreds of sharks have been reported falling victim to entanglement in fishing gear and other marine plastic debris. Snarls of plastic waste adrift at sea are a menace for … Continued

io9Movies

The 5 Best Worst Jaws Rip-Offs

Fourth of July classic Jaws was released back in 1975, and we’re still feeling its effects. It helped launch both the summer blockbuster and Steven Spielberg’s career; it influenced how we perceive sharks in real life; and it spawned a tsunami of inferior (but often stupidly entertaining) movies about shark attacks. With that in mind, … Continued

ScienceBiology

Shark Bite Mystery Solved 25 Years Later Thanks to Tooth Tweezed From Foot

A Florida man’s long shark bite saga is finally over. Thanks to scientists at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Jeff Weakley was able to find out the identity of the creature whose tooth was lodged in his body for over two decades: a blacktip shark. As Weakley tells it, his right foot was chomped … Continued

ScienceBiology

How Are Doves and Sparrows Ending Up Inside Baby Sharks?

Back in 2010, scientists were monitoring a shark population on the Mississippi-Alabama border. They had hauled up a small tiger shark to tag when something strange happened: It puked up feathers. A DNA analysis revealed that the shark had eaten a brown thrasher, a speckled migratory songbird related to the mockingbird. Further analysis revealed that … Continued

EartherConservation

Atlantic Shipwreck Graveyard May Be Key Habitat for Imperiled Sharks

Photographs taken by citizen scientist scuba divers show that female sand tiger sharks develop an affinity to certain shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina—a finding that could prove useful to conservation efforts. Female sand tiger sharks are returning to same shipwrecks off the North Carolina Coast, according to a new study published in Ecology. … Continued

ScienceBiology

Great White Sharks Appear Perfectly Healthy Despite Lead, Arsenic, and Mercury Coursing Through Their Veins

Great white sharks aren’t the unstoppable killing machines of Hollywood’s imagination, but studies have continuously shown that they’re definitely badasses of evolution. A new paper out this week adds to that resume, finding that great whites can easily withstand levels of heavy metals that would kill most other animals, all without any apparent health problems. … Continued

ScienceBiology

Newly Decoded Great White Shark Genome Hints at Why They’re So Indestructible

The great white shark is impressively terrifying (though not actually much of a threat to humans). But a new study shows that the animal is also an impressive feat of evolution. For the first time, scientists say they’ve fully unspooled the genome of the great white, a discovery that will help us better understand why sharks … Continued

io9Games

Everyone Will Fight Over Who Gets to Play the Shark in This New Jaws Board Game

Is it even possible to go for a swim without at some point humming the two-note Jaws theme in your head as you approach other swimmers? The stalking/hunting mentality of our ancestors is still buried deep in our brains, which means that you and your friends are going to fight over who gets to play … Continued

ScienceBiology

Ancient Shark With Spaceship-Shaped Teeth Named After Vintage Video Game

A newly described freshwater shark from the Cretaceous Period had teeth that resembled the iconic Galaga video game spacefighter. Remarkably, the remains of this shark were found in the same pile of debris that contained Sue the T. rex—the largest and most complete fossil of the species ever found. Introducing Galagadon nordquistae, a newly discovered … Continued

EartherConservation

Mysterious Shark Species Discovered in Museum Collection May Already Be Extinct

It’s a new year, and the world has its first new species of shark in 2019. Meet Carcharhinus obsolerus! Though, it’d be wise to temper your expectations if you hope to see the newly-described species in the wild. The unique shark—described based on a few specimens caught many decades ago—may actually be extinct, gone before … Continued

ScienceBiology

Scientists Have Discovered the First Known Omnivorous Shark

Sharks are virtually synonymous with carnivorousness, but the bonnethead shark, as new research suggests, is a true flexitarian, capable of switching between meat and plant-based diets. Researchers from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine have shown that bonnethead sharks, previously thought to be exclusively carnivorous in their food … Continued

io9Movies

Let’s Gush About The Meg’s Best Moment

Whether you love The Meg, hate The Meg, or anything in between, there’s one moment that’s so hilariously amazing, we just had to call it out. Of course, this moment is a spoiler, so if you plan on seeing the movie (and we think you should), this is your warning. Much of The Meg’s second … Continued

io9Movies

The Meg Is Dumb, But It Knows It’s Dumb, and That’s Why It’s Great

Though they are complete tonal opposites, The Meg feels like an unlikely and very unconventional love letter to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. It’s as if the film’s writers sat down to watch that 1975 masterpiece and just kept asking “What if?” What if the shark really ate people off the beach? What if the heroes could … Continued

ScienceBiology

The Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs Also Jumbled Shark Evolution

More than 500 different shark species roam Earth’s oceans: from zippy little cookie-cutter sharks, to the iconic great white, to nightmarish goblin sharks, to 25-foot-long, filter-feeding basking sharks. And it seems that the current equilibrium of shark species we see today arose after the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction event 66 million years ago, according to new … Continued

ScienceBiology

Incompetent Thieves Steal Shark From San Antonio Aquarium by Disguising It as a Baby

Security footage caught three people stealing a gray horn shark from the San Antonio Aquarium in Texas in a plot that would be comically stupid were it not likely to result in harm to the animal, with police taking into custody one person of interest and expecting to charge two others, according to the San … Continued

EartherConservation

It’s Always Shark Week At The New York Aquarium

When you first step inside the New York Aquarium’s new shark exhibit, Ocean Wonders: Sharks!, the only thing separating you from the toothy predators is about six inches of acrylic. The exhibit walls arch overhead, fully immersing you in an underwater world of zebra sharks and black-tipped reef sharks gliding amongst colorful coral. Situated right … Continued

ScienceBiology

Whale Sharks Can Live 130 Years, New Study Estimates

The world’s biggest fish is the mysterious whale shark, which can grow as heavy as 40,000 pounds and as large as 60 feet, though most top out a few feet and pounds smaller than that. It also appears these behemoths can live to be 130 years old, new observations and modeling have shown. It’s a … Continued

EartherConservation

We’d Brave the Post Office to Use These Amazing New Shark Stamps

A set of new shark-themed stamps including species of global conservation concern could make your next trip to a post office somewhat exciting—if you live in Canada, that is. Five shark species that inhabit Canadian waters are highlighted in Canada Post’s latest set of stamps. From the enormous basking sharks to the elusive, long-lived Greenland … Continued

ScienceBiology

Adorable New Shark Species Named After Trailblazing Marine Biologist Eugenie Clark

Say hello to Squalus clarkae, otherwise known as Genie’s dogfish. This newly identified species of deepwater shark was named in honor of Eugenie Clark, a scientific pioneer who influenced an entire generation of marine biologists. Few people have done more to improve the reputation of sharks in the public’s mind than Eugenie Clark, who died … Continued