Hey, we need some help: what is a good baby shower gift for a mom that is giving birth to twenty children? Oh, and the mother is a shark, we should probably mention that.
In this amazing, incredible, beautiful video from Discovery, currently in the middle of their annual Shark Week, we get to see Dr. James Sulikowski and researchers from the University of New England perform the first ever shark sonogram on a 12-and-a-half foot tiger shark. What they saw inside were at least 20 fetal sharks, about two-thirds of the way through their development (roughly 40-45 centimeters in length), meaning they were only a couple of months away from being born. Look at those baby teeth! Have shark teeth ever been so adorable before?
Not only is this first-ever shark sonogram a big deal because it allowed them to tag the mother so they can trace her movements during the rest of the pregnancy, it also meant not having to do something much worse. “Historically if you wanted to see if a tiger shark was pregnant you had to cut her up.”
Good, because humans kill way (way, way, way, way) more sharks than they kill us. And watching this video, it’s hard not to see the mother shark for what she is–just another creature living life.
We first came across this amazing clip at Sploid, and we can’t stop watching it. Even without the aid of having the baby sharks outlined you can see them in the sonogram. Everything about this is truly wonderful.
Except that we are really going to struggle to come up with 20 good shark names (and we won’t, um, need to use many of those names when the babies start “competing” in the womb). So give us your best shark monikers in the comments below to help us out.
Images: Discovery Communications
