Amazing photo: Researchers reel in shark within a shark

This luckless shark thought he had snapped up a tasty bite - only for another shark twice its size to make a meal of it.

Students at the University of Delaware's Ocean Exploration, Remote Sensing, Biography (ORB) Lab made the amazing find as they tried to recapture sharks tagged for scientific research in Delaware Bay.

They reeled in the large female sand tiger shark and discovered a three-foot long dogfish inside its mouth.

A post on the ORB Facebook page said: "Shark fishing season has officially begun for the ORB LAB. Last Friday, a crew struck out to try and recapture sharks carrying tags containing valuable information about the species assemblage encountered by these coastal apex predators.

"We caught one large female on our first line Friday, but we were not expecting to catch her like this!

"This unlucky smooth dogfish couldn't resist the menhaden used as bait and unfortunately fell victim to one of the top predators in the bay. The dogfish was about three feet long and was completely swallowed by the sand tiger shark."

The sand tiger shark is a species of shark that inhabits subtropical and temperate waters worldwide.

It is not related at all to the tiger shark, but it is a cousin of the great white shark. They dwell in the waters of Japan, Australia, South Africa, the Mediterranean and the east coasts of North and South America.

Despite its fearsome appearance and strong swimming ability, it is a relatively placid and slow-moving shark with no confirmed human fatalities.

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