Ever Seen a Shark Walk? Tiny Animals Amaze on PBS

By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | November 17, 2017 01:16pm ET

Great Whites may get all the headlines, but it's a miniature species of shark that can do what no other shark can: walk.

The epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) grows to less than 3.3 feet (1 meter) in length and lives in shallow coral reefs off Australia, Indonesia and New Guinea. With its small body and brown-spotted skin, the shark doesn't seem very flashy. But the species is well-adapted to its shallow marine environment. If a receding tide strands the animal on the reef, not only can the shark slow its metabolism to survive for an hour on a single gasp of air, but it can also use its fins to "walk" back into the water.

A new documentary by PBS called "Nature's Miniature Miracles" shows the sharks doing just that. The 1-hour show, part of the channel's "Nature" series, will feature feats by planet Earth's small, often-overlooked creatures. Viewers can watch epaulette sharks escape suffocation on dry land, see a peacock spider (Maratus Volans) do a colorful mating dance and peek in on a Japanese puffer fish as it sculpts a mating nest out of sand with its fins. [Photos: Pufferfish Make Seafloor Circles to Mate]

Read on and watch video