Epaulette sharks are about nine-million years old. That’s pretty old, right? But in shark species, it’s nothing. Epaulettes, as you can see, aren’t exactly a shark you need to be worried about and they’re certainly one of the most interesting ones. Case in point: they can walk on land.
According to the Aquarium of the Pacific, while they do indeed have the capability to swim, most of their movement comes from “walking.” They move around relatively smoothly on their little fins, navigating over rocks and lumps of coral while searching for bottom-dwelling invertebrates, which make up the brunt of their food.
They’re most often found in warm, shallow rock pools that don’t have too much oxygen. To survive, they’ve developed the extraordinary talent of increasing the blood supply to their brain, but shutting down the non-essential brain functions.
