A hammerhead shark is likely to create world-record by being caught pregnant with 55 pups! Estimated to be between 40 and 50 years old, it weighed 1,280 pounds with the pups.
The shark was taken for a necropsy at Mote Marine Laboratory. The scientists informed on Thursday that 52 of the pups were nearly full-term and just a few days from birth. This finding crumbled the previous belief that hammerhead sharks gave birth to 20 to 40 pups at a time.
Dr. Robert Hueter, director of Mote’s Center for Shark Research said,
Although we are thankful that the fisherman gave this unique specimen to Mote, and we are learning a lot about this species from this large female shark, we were saddened to see so many unborn pups inside her so close to birth.
Via: Live Science