Cookiecutter sharks or cookiecutter sharks are known for their ability to rip into small pieces of animal bodies even those that are larger than them. Recent studies have shown that this alien-looking animal terrorizes animals of all sizes.
This animal is called the cookie cutter shark not because of its hobby of devouring cakes, but because its eating behavior is both strange and scary. Each time it finishes biting its prey, it leaves a circular scar that looks like cookie dough that has just been punched in a cookie cutter.
This green-eyed and scary-looking fish can grow to a size of 50 cm. These strange creatures that inhabit the deep sea use their pointed teeth to eat great white sharks that are 10 times their size, even biting bits of human flesh.
Quoted from Live Science, Tuesday (7/9/2021) scientists often observe bite marks on larger animals that are preyed on by cookie cutter sharks, and thus assume that they are mainly eaten by sharks. But as it turns out, these sharks also chew animals at the bottom of the food chain, giving them a unique role in marine ecosystems.
cookie cutter shark cookie cutter shark. Photo: Pally/Alamy Stock via Live Science
"They eat everything from the largest and heaviest apex predators like white sharks, orcas, to the smallest creatures. Not many animals do something like this," said lead author Aaron Carlisle, assistant professor in the School of Marine Science and Policy. at the University of Delaware.
This shark, which has the scientific name Isistius brasiliensis, lives in tropical and subtropical waters and can inhabit depths of more than 1,500 meters. If humans see cookie cutter sharks, they are usually near the surface at night, when hunting for larger prey in the upper ocean.
cookie cutter shark cookie cutter shark terrorizes all animals. Photo: Pally/Alamy Stock via Live Science
The researchers found that cookie cutter sharks mostly eat smaller species at lower depths, including crustaceans, squid and small fish, such as members of the genera Ariomma and Cololabis. Some of this prey may be small enough for a shark to swallow whole. In contrast, large animals from the upper ocean make up less than 10% of the shark's diet.
The researchers added that the findings shed light on the behavior of these cryptic sea creatures. But the shark sample was small and from a limited geographic range, so it's not clear if this feeding trend is the same across the global range of cookie cutter sharks.
