Page 20 - World of Animals - Book of Sharks & Ocean Predators

Sharks & Ocean Predators
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Shark bites Megalodon

How long do Snout
13 sharks live? Megalodon ate whales,
so its snout was
Most species live for between
shorter to let it bite into
20 and 30 years. But the large prey.
whale shark is estimated to
Great white
live for up to 100 years.
Size
Megalodon was probably
What’s the 12-20m (39-66 ) long.

14 smallest shark? That’s larger than a
modern whale shark. Teeth
A kind of deepwater dogfi sh 18cm (7in) long and very
shark called etmopterus robust. Edges were lined

perryi. It lives in the with very fine serrations.
Caribbean Sea and grows no
larger than 20cm (7.8in) – a
Bones
real puppy of a shark. Although megalodon
didn’t have true bones,
its skeleton was much

Do any sharks more calcified than
modern sharks.
15 glow in the dark?
Jaw
Yes, a few species use Calculations suggest
its entire stomach, except for 19 powerful than that of a
bioluminescence to lure prey.
that megalodon had
a bite five times more

The brightest is the cookie
cutter shark, which glows over
tyrannosaurus rex.
a dark band round its neck.
This makes it look like a much Was
smaller fish silhouetted against 20

megalodon
the sky.
a real shark? How many
Is it true sharks
16 don’t get cancer? Megalodon is an extinct species
Sharks definitely do get that lived between 28 and shark

cancer, but there’s some 1.5 million years ago. Only
evidence that a compound teeth fossils and a handful species
called angiogenin, an inhibitor of isolated vertebrae have
in shark cartilage, reduces the ever been found, so most are there?
ability of tumours to grow, but of what we know about this
scientists haven’t yet agreed animal is extrapolated from True sharks are classifi ed
on this. The disease can still comparisons with living in the superorder
be fatal for sharks. sharks. It does seem to have selachimorpha and there
been a true shark – probably are more than 440
related to the great white species alive today. A
What’s the most and mako sharks. But new species of shark,
17 endangered it was much bigger – skate or ray is identifi ed
species of shark? between 2.5 and 3 times approximately every two
Both the large sawfi sh and the size of a great white. weeks or so.
the common sawfish are listed

as critically endangered by
the International Union for How do sharks give birth, and
Conservation of Nature. Their
entangled in fishing nets, and 21 what are ‘mermaid’s purses’?
saw snouts can easily become

they become trapped.
Most sharks retain their
Some sharks lay eggs
inside a case eggs inside the female and
Which is give birth to live young,
18 the fastest shark unlike other fi sh that
ever to have existed? commonly lay their eggs.
The shortfin mako shark is A few species, including

commonly thought to be the the horn shark and Port
fastest shark ever. An open- Jackson shark lay eggs
water hunter that chases fast inside a leathery egg case.
fish such as tuna, it can reach Empty egg cases that

up to 32km/h (20mph). wash up on the shore are
called mermaid’s purses, for
© Alice Wiegand imaginative reasons.
20
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