Wait, what? A warm-blooded, plankton-eating shark?
During this year’s Shark Week, I came across an article published in Endangered Species Research that reported on warm-blooded basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus). While the majority of fish and sharks are cold-blooded, researchers found that the core body temperature of these endangered basking sharks is 1-1.5 degrees celsius warmer than the water in which they swim. Because not all tissues are warm, they are ‘regionally endothermic’. While it makes sense […]
Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle 