What unborn animal freezes to avoid predators?

January 10, 2013 By News Staff

Answer: baby sharks

According to New Scientist, baby sharks faced with a dangerous predator will hold their breath and stay still -- even before they're born.

"New research shows that the shark embryos can detect the bio-electric fields of approaching predators," New Scientist reported. "When they do, they freeze by stopping their gill movements, as shown in the video below. This suggests that even at these early stages, embryonic sharks can recognise dangers and instinctively try to avoid them, say the researchers."

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Comments

Freida | Commented January 11, 2013

Ambiguous language used in the question -- I thought "freeze" meant, according to dictionary.com, to become hardened into ice or into a solid body; change from the liquid to the solid state by loss of heat.

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