Researchers suspect that an even bigger shark consumed a 7-foot shark.

An even larger shark is believed to have eaten a 7-foot porbeagle shark, marking the first evidence of an ocean hunter becoming the hunted.

In late October 2020, researchers in Massachusetts captured a porbeagle shark and attached two tracker tags to it, including a dorsal fin tag to transmit its location and a pop-off satellite archival tag (PSAT) to measure its temperature and depth in the ocean, according to a paper published Tuesday in Frontiers in Marine Science.

The device, which was designed to detach from the shark after a year, unexpectedly popped off after five months near Bermuda.

NBC News was informed by one of its researchers, Brooke Anderson, that something had gone terribly wrong.

The study found that the shark's diving patterns became erratic and its temperature readings increased despite swimming at a deep enough depth to make the readings cooler, as indicated by the data collected from the tag that detached.

Scientists ruled out mammals like orcas due to their warmer temperature readings and focused on endothermic sharks to determine if a tag had spent several days in their stomachs.

The study presents new evidence of predation on a porbeagle shark, which is a large, globally vulnerable species, and provides insight into inter-specific interactions.

According to the researchers, the ocean apex predator was attacked by a larger shark, which could only be the white shark or the shortfin mako, both of which are big enough to eat a pregnant 7-footer.

Oregon State University's Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station director James Sulikowski, who was involved in the research, told USA Today that the study reveals the ocean still holds many unsolved mysteries that scientists are eager to uncover.

He said, "It motivates us to study more and discover more about the vulnerability of other large sharks to predation and who the dominant species are."