--- title: Rare Photo of a Shark Birth Hailed by Marine Biologists description: Marine biologists say they've never seen anything like it: A snapshot of an elusive species of shark giving birth in the open ocean. canonical: https://time.com/3664148/shark-birth-photo/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-12T20:08:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:30:04.752Z article:section: Science og:title: Rare Photo of a Shark Birth Hailed by Marine Biologists og:description: Marine biologists say they've never seen anything like it: A snapshot of an elusive species of shark giving birth in the open ocean. og:url: https://time.com/3664148/shark-birth-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rare Photo of a Shark Birth Hailed by Marine Biologists twitter:description: Marine biologists say they've never seen anything like it: A snapshot of an elusive species of shark giving birth in the open ocean. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Marine Biologists Capture Rare Photo of a Shark Birth > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Jan 12, 2015 8:08 PM UTC  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Jan 12, 2015 8:08 PM UTC Marine biologists say they’ve never seen anything like it: Possibly the first known snapshot of an elusive species of shark giving birth in the open ocean. > [](https://twitter.com/redditpicsbot/status/554695402969374722) The image, which was [published](http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-014-1249-8/fulltext.html) in the December issue of the journal _Coral Reefs,_ was captured off of the Philippines coastline in 2013\. Scientists there, during a routine reef survey, noticed a “visibly” agitated thresher shark swimming nearby, trailed by several cleaner fish pecking at its pelvic region. One marine photographer snapped a photo, which later revealed the cause of the shark’s agitation: The head of a newborn pup jutting out head-first from the shark’s body. “I freaked out,” study author Simon Arthur [told](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30747971) BBC News, adding that it was the first image of a shark birth he had encountered in his career. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3664148/shark-birth-photo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3664148/shark-birth-photo/"},"headline":"Marine Biologists Capture Rare Photo of a Shark Birth","datePublished":"2015-01-12T20:08:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:30:04.752Z","description":"Scientists noticed a visibly \"agitated\" shark off of the Philippines coastline","url":"https://time.com/3664148/shark-birth-photo/","keywords":["animals","Sharks","birth","nature"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3664148/shark-birth-photo/","name":"Marine Biologists Capture Rare Photo of a Shark Birth"}}]}] ```