Scientists set new 'record' developing an 'artificial womb' to grow sharks for almost a year

A group of scientists in Japan have developed an 'artificial womb' to incubate baby shark embryos.

This particular scientific breakthrough came to fruition thanks to the experts at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Motobu.

The group built an artificial system that was able to incubate the embryos of slendertail lantern sharks for a period of 355 days - almost a whole year.

And while the creation itself is an impressive feat on it's own, it also achieved a new one by smashing the previous record of 160 days.

Japanese scientists were able to incubate shark embryos for nearly a year (Frontiers in Fish Science)

Like any premature newborn, sharks are especially vulnerable when they're born and that is because seawater is rather salty - it's all too much for their little bodies.

And this is especially a problem for sharks who birth live litters, known as 'viviparious sharks', in comparison to those that lay eggs.

After many experiments and tweaking to the formula, the researchers were able to get a few of the mid-term embryos to grow from three to 15 centimetres, which matches their natural birth size.

And to overcome the seawater issue, they also developed an artificial uterine fluid with similarities to the shark's blood plasma.

The system also gradually altered the chemical composition of the fluid and seawater exposure in the fake womb, and to the experts' satisfaction, it worked.

However, it wasn't all perfect though, as sadly just three of the 33 embryos reached an acceptable size.

The sharks were able to grow in the artificial womb (Frontiers in Fish Science)

"A total of three embryos reached birth size. Two were delivered on April 10th, 2023 (embryonic incubation period of 347 days), and the remaining were delivered on April 18th, 2023 (embryonic incubation period of 355 days)," the study states.

Despite their method of growth, the trio are fit and healthy and, upon their birth, were given a meal of minced mackerel and shrimp.

What impressed researchers even more was the fact they began behaving like any 'normal' baby shark.

The healthy adults are currently living at Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, and Haiku Magazine reports that the sharks appear no different to their 'natural-born' tankmates.

Taketeru Tomita, lead author on the study and researcher at Okinawa Churashima Foundation, told the outlet that they'd like to develop their system to cover more species.

"In our aquarium, as in the outside world for conservation, we cannot select the species we receive." he said.

"The reproductive systems of sharks have great diversity, and I think our system can only apply to about half of viviparous sharks.

"We would like to develop more universal systems."