Will Pearson
Intra-uterine Shark Attack!
by Will Pearson - September 5, 2006 - 1:05 PM

grey_nurse_shark.jpg

I’ve got an idea for the next shark attack movie. It takes place in the uterus of a grey nurse shark, told from the point of view of shark embryos that are being eaten by other shark embryos. And this is actually more realistic than most shark attack movies.

Australian scientists have been trying to find ways to save the grey nurse sharks from extinction and they’re realizing that one of the problems is this intra-uterine cannibalism. As New Scientist reports, “Its embryos have a nasty habit of eating each other in the uterus. Despite starting a pregnancy with up to 40 embryos in her two uteruses, a female shark only gives birth to two pups.”

So, a team of scientists in New South Wales plans to raise up to 40 sharks each year by flushing them from the mother’s uterus and helping them develop in a test tube.

I just hope nobody’s pitched my movie idea yet.

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Comments (5)

  1. absolutely! Compared to the “Snakes on a Plane” debacle, “Sharks in a Uterus” sounds fantastic.

    posted by Mangesh on 9-5-2006 at 1:25 pm

  2. Uteri, I believe. Sorry, not trying to nitpick, just a big fan of the plural form of words ending in ‘-us’.

    posted by Bj on 9-5-2006 at 1:41 pm

  3. Yeah, the “i” ending is more fun but I was quoting an article and “uteruses” is also correct. But feel free to write a passionate letter of protest to New Scientist.

    posted by Will on 9-5-2006 at 1:48 pm

  4. Perhaps this is a unique example of survival of the fittest. If the pups can’t fend off another embryo, they probably wouldn’t have lasted long in the wild. I would imagine the two pups that do make it out are pretty damn tough!

    posted by Brent on 9-5-2006 at 2:06 pm

  5. Speaking of “i” endings: who knows the singular of timpani? [No Googling!]

    posted by David on 9-5-2006 at 6:44 pm

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