<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > preface </h1>
The ocean is much larger than the land, and the human sea is not much explored, which means that every year fishermen who go out to sea to fish can always encounter some strange species, which no one has ever seen. Selling and killing these species, and worrying that it is a rare protected species; just let it go, the heart is uncomfortable, every time you go out to sea, you are caught with this kind of "headache" fish.
So every year, the Oceanographic Research Institute in coastal cities receives many unseen fish or huge marine overlords during the fishing season in September. Previously, a dead great white shark was sent to an oceanographic research museum, and its body was densely covered with more than 20 round pits with a diameter of about 5 centimeters.
Great white shark with dense wounds
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" how did > the injury on the jaw come about? </h1>
According to the examination, the time of death of the great white shark was about one day, and the main injury was in the very regular round pits on the body, each round pit was more than 7 centimeters deep, and these wounds led to the loss of most of the blood and flesh of the great white shark, plus the corrosion of the seawater, and finally died, which was salvaged by fishermen in the sea.
However, we need to know that although the great white shark is not as good as the killer whale, it is also a creature at the top of the food chain, why does it have so many wounds?
Moreover, the researchers did not see any food debris in their teeth and abdomen after dissection, which shows that the great white shark was bitten by a certain creature alive, is there another kind of ocean overlord?
Great white sharks are also considered ocean overlords
At first, the researchers were still discussing whether the ocean barnacles were made, after all, barnacles like to live on large marine fish, and when the barnacles leave the marine life, because of the long stay, the contact part will form a circular opening. But after recalling the characteristics of barnacles, people rejected this conjecture.
Because according to the characteristics of the ocean barnacles, when leaving the body of the marine creatures, although it will leave traces, it will not be very deep, if the imprint does not match the body color of the marine creatures, no one can see it, and the barnacles will also make a radial line on the wounds of the creatures, which is completely inconsistent with the wounds on the great white shark, the depth of the wound, the uniformity of the wound pattern are different, so it will not be a barnacles.
barnacle
Later, the researchers proposed the lamprey eel, a parasitic fish that does not have particularly great ability, so it can only rely on other types of organisms to suck blood and eat, and its entire head is round, especially in line with the round wounds on killer whales.
So the researchers found several lamprey eels, looked closely at their mouths, and found that the mouths of the lamprey eels were small, not enough to bite out of the 5 cm diameter of the round pit. More importantly, the lamprey eel bites its prey and leaves two wounds, not one.
Under the action of the bite of the teeth of the lamprey and the absorption of the lips, when the lamprey comes down from the prey, it will form a ring and a ring, which is different from the wound on the great white shark.
Lamprey
In the end, after consulting the literature, they found the culprit, and they can be regarded as a well-deserved overlord in the ocean - Dharma shark!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="27" > "deep-sea overlord" </h1>
The earliest record of the Discovery of the Dharma Shark was in the Brazilian sea in 1824, its body was less than half a meter long, its body was cylindrical, its head was one-fifth of the length of the whole body, and only the jaw had obvious teeth.
The teeth in the middle part of the lower jaw of the organism are relatively wide and somewhat protruding at the same time, while the teeth on both sides are concave, and the alveolars are connected to the edge of the corner of the mouth. The teeth in the upper jaw are small, but numerous, with a slight inward curvature.
Dharma shark
Most dharma sharks move in an area of one kilometer underwater during the day and only appear on the surface of the water at night to feed, and the actual benefit of cylindrical body is that it can swim faster in the water than the average marine predator, which can slow down the obstacles caused by the sea. None of the targets marked by the Dharma Shark escaped.
According to observations, scientists found that the tooth characteristics of the Dharma shark can help it effectively and quickly bite off a piece of flesh of the other party, the specific operation is somewhat similar to the crocodile's death tumbling and chainsaw effect, when the Dharma shark bites the prey, the upper jaw stabilizes its own body, and the jaw more than twenty triangular teeth pierce into the skin of the prey and begin to rotate in one direction.
Dharma shark teeth
In this way, from biting the prey to biting a piece of meat, it takes less than two seconds, because of the cylindrical shape and meat digging method of the Dharma shark itself, there will be a round pit on the prey, if it is the same Dharma shark bite, then the size of the round pit on the body of the prey should be the same, which is why more than two dozen different round pits of different sizes will be found on the great white shark.
The Dharma shark will be called the "overlord of the deep sea", not because of its bite force and body size, but because its speed and recklessness are rarely matched by fish. Dharma sharks outpace ordinary predators in the water, and at the same time, short-range rapid eruptions can even catch up with swordfish.
Dharma sharks are extremely fast
According to the Hawaii Institute of Biological Research, in the tropical and subtropical waters where cigar Dharma sharks are infested, on average, every swordfish caught has no less than five round pits on it, and these are the masterpieces of The Dharma Shark.
As for its recklessness, it is because even the top overlord of the ocean, the killer whale, dares to attack.
Marine biologists have used infrared imaging and wireless waves near the deep sea to detect the habits of underwater organisms, and happened to find an adult killer whale, and the display screen showed that a round pit appeared at the corner of the mouth of the killer whale, and its wound size and shape particularly resembled the operation of the Dharma shark, plus it was near the Indian Ocean, so it was speculated that it should be the hand under the cigar Dharma shark.
Cigar Dharma shark
In addition to daring to bite killer whales, another feat of the Dharma shark is to bite the American submarine.
In the early 1970s, during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the U.S. Navy was on a mission, and not long after the voyage, the submarine issued an automatic alarm, which frightened the people in the submarine and thought that they had been attacked by the enemy. Later, the submarine was forced to return, and when it arrived at the naval base, the maintenance workers came to check on the submarine's problems, only to find that the submarine's "eyes" were no longer used.
It turned out that there was a layer of rubber on the outermost periphery of the sonar deflector of the submarine, and the rubber was wrapped in oil, without which the sonar could not navigate normally, and this part of the rubber was bitten out of a round pit, directly biting the rubber layer. Only then did the U.S. military know that it was the handiwork of the Dharma shark.
Later, through the study of the habits and sharp teeth of the Dharma shark, the US military decided to add a layer of glass fibrous material to the rubber outer layer, which completely prevented the harassment of these troublemakers!
Dharma shark bites American submarine
In 1980, a similar situation occurred in 1970, this time almost posing a threat to people. At that time, the U.S. Navy submarines were on patrol, most of the submarine's radar antennas and communication devices were bitten, and some of the exposed cables were also bitten, the "navigation eye" and "signal eye" were destroyed, and the position of three hundred meters under the water was already pitch black, and it was not known when it would hit other creatures and reefs, so it could only rise urgently.
The occurrence of this incident directly led to the installation of fiberglass materials on the periphery of ships and submarines built by the United States.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="62" > is such a "deep-sea overlord" harmful to humans? </h1>
Although there were no direct casualties in the U.S. Navy's encounter, it was because the submarine could return in time, and in life, this "deep-sea overlord" had other hazards.
Ferocious Dharma shark
Dharma sharks are carnivorous marine parasitic fish that eat meat when they see meat, even humans. In 1992, there was a fisherman who drowned on Hawaii Island, and several large and small round pits appeared on the fisherman's body, apparently by the Dharma shark. However, until May 2021, there have only been four cases of Dharma sharks actively attacking living people, all in Hawaii.
Fishermen's income is reduced
Because of this threat, boats during the fishing period generally only travel a few times and do not travel again, one because of maintaining the number of fish, and the other because of the Dharma shark.
Fishing vessels have caught fewer fishing
Dharma shark is not a "vulnerable" organism, the number is very large, and it does not have any economic value and nutritional value, if the tropical sea is fine, the cigar Dharma shark is basically underwater for a kilometer during the day, but the South China Sea is different, here lives this other Dharma shark species - lip Dharma shark.
This kind of Dharma shark likes to roam near the upper layer of the sea, and every year fishing boats will catch this creature, basically by mistake and drift gillnet, because at present, there are no examples of eating Dharma sharks on the human side, so catching this fish will actually only reduce the quality of the catch.
Fished Dharma sharks
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="82" > do such "deep-sea overlords" have natural enemies? </h1>
According to observations in the past two hundred years, no creatures have been found to feed on Dharma sharks. The only example is that a tuna was found to have eaten it, but the Dharma shark is still alive in the belly of the tuna, so the tuna should also be eaten by mistake.
Of course, although we have not found their natural enemies yet, but the natural selection, Dharma sharks are small, damage can only do single damage, there will always be things we do not know, otherwise they reproduce at the rate of 6-12 cubs per year, the sea has long been occupied, so don't worry too much.
When humans use tools, they are always at the top of the food chain, and humans will be the natural enemies of all living things in certain circumstances, depending on whether the existence of Dharma sharks will affect humans.
Dharma shark controlled by humans
As the saying goes, existence is reasonable, and although the Dharma shark has no value to humans, it has a great role in the ocean, somewhat similar to the silver carp effect.
Silver carp effect refers to the fisherman catches the sardine and throws it in the cabin, because the sardines are easy to die in a small space, so the fisherman will throw a silver carp in the fish, and the silver carp will promote the sardines to swim around and remain active.
In contrast, the effect of the Dharma shark is like an enlarged version of the silver carp effect, although the target object of the Dharma shark is the kind of marine predator, but because of the existence of the Dharma shark, the activity of these tropical fish will be better than that of the fish in the Arctic Ocean, which is also the advantage of the Dharma shark.
Catfish effect
Everything in the world has its own reason for existence, perhaps it is good for the environment, it may be harmful, but it has to be admitted that because of their existence, the ecological food chain has not collapsed, and the existence of the Dharma shark is more like a "teacher" that motivates marine fish.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="95" > conclusion </h1>
The ocean is more than twice as large as the land, so what happens in the ocean is actually not surprising, what really worries us is whether the creatures can survive normally, which is related to the long-term stability of mankind!
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