A huge 9-foot-long great white shark was eaten by an even bigger “mystery sea monster,” according to scientists.
Researchers had tagged the healthy shark to track its movements as part of a study, but were shocked when the tracking device washed up on a beach in Australia four months later.
Data captured on the device showed there was a rapid temperature rise from 46 degrees to 78 degrees Fahrenheit along with a sudden, sharp 1,902-foot plunge.
The researchers believe the data proves it was eaten by something much bigger, saying the temperatures recorded indicate that the shark went inside another animal’s digestive system.
The only theory they have so far is that that shark was gobbled up by a “colossal cannibal great white shark.”
The case is detailed in an upcoming documentary by the Smithsonian Institute, called the “Hunt for the Super Predator,” which draws from an earlier Australian documentary, “The Search for the Ocean’s Super Predator.”
“When I was first told about the data that came back from the tag that was on the shark, I was absolutely blown away,” filmmaker Dave Riggs says in the documentary.
“The question that not only came to my mind but everyone’s mind who was involved was, ‘What did that?’ It was obviously eaten. What’s gonna eat a shark that big? What could kill a [9-foot] great white?”
This article originally appeared on News.com.au.