Imagine watching your favourite nature documentary. The predator lunges rapidly from its hiding place, jaws wide open, and the prey … suddenly goes limp. It looks dead.
For some animals, this freeze response – called “tonic immobility” – can be a lifesaver. Possums famously “play dead” to avoid predators. So do rabbits, lizards, snakes, and even some insects.
But what happens when a shark does it?
In our recent study, we explored this strange behaviour in sharks, rays and their relatives. In this group, tonic immobility is triggered when the animal is turned upside down – it stops moving, its muscles relax, and it enters a trance-like state. Some scientists even use tonic immobility as a technique to safely handle certain shark species.
But why does it happen? And does it actually help these marine predators survive?
The mystery of the ‘frozen shark’
Despite being well documented across the animal kingdom, the reasons behind tonic immobility remain murky – especially in the ocean. It is generally thought of as an anti-predator defence. But there is no evidence to support this idea in sharks, and alternative hypotheses exist.
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We tested 13 species of sharks, rays, and a chimaera – a shark relative commonly referred to as a ghost shark – to see whether they entered tonic immobility when gently turned upside down underwater.
Seven species did, but six did not. We then analysed these findings using evolutionary tools to map the behaviour across hundreds of million years of shark family history.
So, why do some sharks freeze?
Three main hypotheses
There are three main hypotheses to explain tonic immobility in sharks:
- Anti-predator strategy – “playing dead” to avoid being eaten
- Reproductive role – some male sharks invert females during mating, so perhaps tonic immobility helps reduce struggle
- Sensory overload response – a kind of shutdown during extreme stimulation.
Our results don’t support any of these explanations.
There’s no strong evidence sharks benefit from freezing when attacked. In fact, modern predators such as orcas can use this response against sharks by flipping them over to immobilise them and then remove their nutrient-rich livers – a deadly exploit.
The reproductive hypothesis also falls short. Tonic immobility doesn’t differ between sexes, and remaining immobile could make females vulnerable to harmful or forced mating events.
And the sensory overload idea? Untested and unverified. So, we offer a simpler explanation. Tonic immobility in sharks is likely an evolutionary relic.
A case of evolutionary baggage
Our evolutionary analysis suggests tonic immobility is “plesiomorphic” – an ancestral trait that was likely present in ancient sharks, rays and chimaeras. But as species evolved, many lost the behaviour.
In fact, we found that tonic immobility was lost independently at least five times across different groups. Which raises the question: why?
In some environments, freezing might actually be a bad idea. Small reef sharks and bottom-dwelling rays often squeeze through tight crevices in complex coral habitats when feeding or resting. Going limp in such settings could get them stuck – or worse. That means losing this behaviour might have actually been advantageous in these lineages.
So, what does this all mean?
Rather than a clever survival tactic, tonic immobility might just be “evolutionary baggage” – a behaviour that once served a purpose, but now persists in some species simply because it doesn’t do enough harm to be selected against.
It’s a good reminder that not every trait in nature is adaptive. Some are just historical quirks.
Our work helps challenge long-held assumptions about shark behaviour, and sheds light on the hidden evolutionary stories still unfolding in the ocean’s depths.
Next time you hear about a shark “playing dead”, remember – it might just be muscle memory from a very, very long time ago.
Jodie L. Rummer, Professor of Marine Biology, James Cook University and Joel Gayford, PhD Candidate, Department of Marine Biology, James Cook University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
