Epaulette shark can walk 30 metres on land and is 'evolving in climate crisis'

Researchers at a university in Florida say a small but feisty species of carpet shark with an extraordinary ability to walk on land is evolving to better survive warming seas and the climate crisis.

- Richard Luscombe

The epaulette shark, commonly found on shallow reefs of Australia and New Guinea, can walk up to 30 metres on dry land using its paddle-shaped fins, and survive hypoxia - a deficiency of oxygen - for up to two hours, they say.

The biologists at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), and their research partners in Australia, say these remarkable abilities enable the reef-dwelling sharks to survive increasingly hostile environments as conditions change.

The researchers' study, published in the integrative and comparative biology journal, says: "Such locomotor traits may not only be key to survival but also may be related to their sustained physiological performance under challenging environmental conditions, including those associated with climate change.