The first evidence of the disease in the shark's species was found in the postmortem of the shark, which was found stranded off the coast of Cornwall.
The shark was washed back into the sea after it was discovered by a dog walker on a beach near Penzance. A postmortem was carried out after it was found floating in the water off Newlyn harbour beach.
The sharks live in the depths of the ocean. The female was out of her natural deep-water habitat. She had a cloudy fluid in her brain that was likely to have caused the meninge. It is not known how the shark contracted the disease.
The last shark to wash up in the UK was in Northumberland. The discovery of this specimen has given researchers an opportunity to study the planet's longest-lived vertebrate species. The shark was still considered a juvenile despite being born just after the first world war. Females are thought to reach maturity at 150 years old, when they are about 4.2 metres long.
This unfortunate and extraordinary stranding has allowed us to get an insight into the life and death of a species we don't know much about.
This is the first necropsy ever done on a species of shark in the UK, and it was an excellent opportunity to learn more about the life and death of this species.
Meningitis is caused by an infectious disease. Pasteurella has been found to cause Meningitis in humans, but it is extremely rare. Pathologists don't know what species of Pasteurella affected the shark. Deaville said that meningitis is not known how widespread it is. Over the past decade, he has seen a couple of beached basking sharks affected, and it has also been reported in captive lemon sharks.
The Cornwall marine pathology team carried out the postmortem. Net marks or parasites are some of the possible causes of death that the Pathologists began to look for. They opened the body and looked at the organs for signs of abnormality. The samples were taken, documented, and sent for analysis to look at diet, exposure to pollution, and disease.
The shark's body was in poor condition and there were signs of a haemorrhage within the soft tissue around the pectoral fins.
This is the first postmortem examination of a shark in the UK, and the first account of a disease in this species.
The shark's body parts were sent to research institutions around the country for examination.
The evolution of how the sharks swim will be studied. If there are microplastics in the gastrointestinal tract, scientists will look at other hard remains such as fish ear bones or squid beaks, which could shed light on the shark's diet. What pollutants the shark was exposed to during its long life could be revealed through the use of toxicology tests.
The whole genome of some samples will be sent to the Sanger Institute to be analysed as part of the Darwin Tree of Life project.
The only shark species that can survive all year in the ocean is the Greenland shark. They are well adapted to cold water because of their slow metabolism. They grow less than 1 cm a year, have a top speed of less than 2 km an hour, and have a heart that beats five or six times a minute. A 5-metre female was the largest specimen ever found.
I've been doing this job for 25 years and we get a lot of strandings, but I wasn't expecting a call about a shark on a Sunday.
Many of the sharks caught in fishing nets were once hunted for their oil. The species is vulnerable. CSIP has done postmortems on thousands of cetaceans over the past 30 years, making it one of the largest databases on strandings and causes of death.
Rosie Woodroffe was out walking her dog when she spotted the stranded shark.
She found a book on sharks when she got home. As wars raged above her, she swam calmly in the deep ocean.
Anyone who spots a stranding is urged to call the national hotline. The shark's postmortem investigations will be published in a research paper.
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