cookiecutter1
January 23rd, 2013
1106240107
This specimen of a cookiecutter shark, Isistius brasiliensis, is housed in the Florida Museum of Natural History collections on the University of Florida campus. Cookiecutter sharks are small and adults reach about 2 feet, but their unique jaws specialize in scooping out a piece of flesh, leaving victims with a crater-like wound. George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File housed at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus, co-authored a study in the July print edition of Pacific Science documenting the first cookiecutter attack on a live human.
Florida Museum of Natural History photo by Kristen Grace