A shark discovered sliced in half on a beach has sparked fears it was attacked by much a larger predator hunting in nearby waters.
An image of the gruesome find, posted to Reddit's r/sharks thread, has sparked a debate as to what caused could have caused the fish's death.
The user who captured the picture explained that they came across the grizzly sight while out on a beach walk on Oak Island, Canada.
He said: "Saw this poor guy yesterday", with his post receiving hundreds of upvotes and leaving others questioning what creature could be behind the attack, the Mirror reports.
The original poster left an image of the shark and asked others what could have left in pieces as others suggested an attack by a larger shark.
A user claimed to have identified it as an "Atlantic Sharpnose, an assumption made "based on the nose shape, white spots, and dark backside of the dorsal."
But many other users were left scratching their heads how it met its death, rather than trying to identify the species.
Amid the speculation one user rubbished claims of an accident with a propeller.
In response to one comment the posterwrote: "This was not a boat accident! This wasn't any propeller.
"This wasn't any coral reef. And it wasn't Jack the Ripper."
Another user replied: "It was a shark, great white shark. Definitely not a great white but I've seen many sharks eaten by other sharks. There's always a bigger fish."
A third backed the claim that it was a shark attack that left the smaller shark severed in half, writing: "Another shark would do that all day every day."
The original poster asked for "any ideas what kind [of shark] it is?" which gave others the opportunity to joke about what was left of the shark.
One user joked that "it's clearly half a shark," while another cited the finding as "leftovers".
Professor Mark Meekan, from the Australian Institute for Marine Science, then told National Geographic's WILD new show Cannibal Sharks that all sharks are cannibals – even fearsome great whites.
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