Photographs: Something Took a Huge Bite Into This Massive Great White Shark

In a world of savagery and power, one female great white shark bears one phenomenal scar of her survival.

Photographer Jalil Najafov took a photo of a massive great white female shark in 2019 while diving in Isla Guadalupe, 🇲🇽Mexico. What set this creature apart from the rest was a ring of teeth marks, suggesting that something even more massive than the 15-foot shark had attacked her.

Najafov posted the photo to his Instagram account last month.

He told CNN that he had mislaid the memory card from the trip and just recently found it.

“I have been working with sharks and shark content for many years. I have a lot of experience in this niche,” Najafov said. “I know for sure when I see something rare. I have never seen such a huge shark scar.”

“On rare occasions, during mating season among sharks, ‘mating scars’ appear on female sharks’ bodies caused by the males holding onto them,” Najafov explained, according to CBS.

“These scars are mostly deeper cuts and punctures, indicating a more forceful motivation such as coercive mating from the male’s side,” he said.

On his Instagram account, Najafov quoted Tristan Guttridge, a behavioral ecologist and Wildlife