Wrong Turn 450,000 Years Ago Landed Sharks In the Mediterranean

White Shark - Terry Gross

A simple wrong turn, no doubt by one or two pregnant females, somewhere in the vicinity of 450,000 years ago during climate changes, could have caused sharks to show up in a place they were no supposed to be. This is according to research which was Published this past Wednesday, in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. (It should however be noted that we don´t necessarily agree with the findings here at AC as competition for space is an easier explanation on why some fish first swam into the Mediterraneanan.)

And of course liking the area, they have stayed on in the Mediterranean – albeit in small groups – because much like salmon they go back to where they were born. It is also believed that the narrow channels in the Mediterranean have made it nigh impossible for the sharks to get back out again.

Researchers believe this “wrong turn” happened due to a mixture of climate change, high sea levels, and changing currents at the time, and as a result the sharks gained a permanent foothold in the Mediterranean.

Thanks to genetic analysis and tagging, researchers now know that sharks do indeed swim between Australia and Africa, and actually have a tendency to swim towards the east to where they were born, making their way using cues from the ocean currents they swim through.

However, in the case of long long ago, scientists still believe that some sharks simply became confused, and wound up a little bit off course, and as a result, permanently made a change in the way the world we live in today is.