Page 18 - World of Animals - Book of Sharks & Ocean Predators

Sharks & Ocean Predators
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Shark bites Shark anatomy

Do sharks have
1 tongues and a sense What’s inside
of taste? 5
Nostrils
The basihyal looks a bit like a shark? Spine Used for smelling, not
Made of cartilage rather than
a tongue, but it is really just bone. It extends into the top tail breathing. Some sharks
a protrusion of cartilage fin, for extra power. have protrusions called

Cloaca
on the floor of the mouth. nasal barbels that act

Combined opening for as smelling probes.
Sharkshave tastebuds on the excretion, defecation
rest of their m outh, though, and reproduction. First dorsal fi n
and often give prey a test bite Males have clasper Spine

fins instead of a penis.
to check the fl avour.
How can you tell a Second dorsal fi n
2 shark’s gender? Upper lobe
Male sharks have a pair of
protrusions called claspers
Heart
on their belly, between the Sharks have much
Stomach

pelvic fins. These are used Very large compared lower blood pressure
like a penis to insert into the © DK Images to the intestine and than us. Swimming
female’s cloaca. Caudal fi n Pelvic fi n can stretch to cope muscles assist the
with large meals. weak heart.
Pectoral fi n Liver
Full of dense squalene oil, the
Epigonal liver can comprise up to 30
Unique to sharks. It is thought
Lower lobe per cent of the shark’s mass
to help with making red blood Corkscrew valve and take up as much as 90 per
cells, since sharks have no Slows down food through the cent of the space in the body.
bone marrow. very short intestine, to give
enough time to digest it.

© Jlencion

How do
3 sharks hear?
The basihyal looks a bit like
a tongue, but it is really just
a protrusion of cartilage
© Thinkstock
on the floor of the mouth.

Sharkshave tastebuds on the
rest of their mouth, though, “Sharks treat their teeth as disposable weapons and
and often give prey a test bite
to check the fl avour. can lose a couple with every bite”
How do you tell the Why do sharks have
4 age of a shark? 6
It’s not easy. Because they
shed their teeth so often, you so many fi ns?
can’t measure the growth
rings in them to determine They don’t really have many more fins than other fish, it’s just

age. The vertebrae have that they are larger and more conspicuous. Sharks use their wide
growth rings too, but they pectoral fins to generate lift, like the wings of a plane. The tail, or

aren’t added at a uniform rate, caudal fin, has a larger upper lobe because the spine extends into it.

so researchers inject marker This generates thrust and the notches reduce turbulence. The dorsal
chemicals to captured sharks and anal fins reduce the amount of side-to-side motion as the tail

to provide reference samples. beats. The second dorsal fin is the only one missing from other fi sh

and it offsets the movement of the large upper caudal lobe. © Thinkstock
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