Page 21 - World of Animals - Book of Sharks & Ocean Predators

50 facts about sharks
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How does a hammerhead shark
22 know which way it’s going?
Despite their oddly shaped heads,
hammerhead sharks can see
forwards at least as well as other
sharks, and possibly better. All fish 26
have their eyes set on the sides
of their head, but the hammer or
Which
cephalofoil on a hammerhead shark
is right at the front so they have
much less snout to get in the way of ones don’t
forward vision than other sharks. The look like
wide separation also allows better
directionality of the special electrical sharks?
sense of sharks. Hammerheads eat
stingrays and their electrical sense
Stingray
helps them find rays buried under the
sand on the seabed.
Electric ray
23
Sawfish
The whale shark. As
well as being the largest
shark, this is also the What’s the
largest fish. Only true
whales are larger. Adults Skate
can be over 20m (66ft). biggest shark?
24 25
What’s Frilled shark
the oldest
shark on
record? Manta ray
© Brocken Inaglory Modern sharks date back 100
million years, but there were
primitive sharks as long ago as
420 million years. One of the
What is the deadliest shark? earliest was cladoselache, from
around 370 million years ago.
The International Shark Attack File keeps Carpet shark
records going back to the 16th century and Well preserved fossils show
shows that the tiger, bull and great white skin, muscles and even internal
between them account for 99 per cent of organs. Apart from a few
shark attacks on humans. Of these, the great around the mouth and fins,
white tops the list with 249 unprovoked cladoselache had no scales.
attacks and 65 fatalities. Its teeth were smooth and it
swallowed its prey whole.
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Shark bites
Do sharks sleep?
27 Not properly. Some
species rest on the seabed,
but their eyes will still follow
nearby swimmers. Others may
rest one half of their brain at
a time, like dolphins do. The
spiny dogfish uses its spine
to co-ordinate swimming, so
that it can rest its entire brain
without stopping.
Are sharks
28 solitary
or do they live
in groups?
Many species are highly social.
Scalloped hammerheads can
© Jeremy Collins form schools of up to 100
sharks, for example. Even
the normally solitary hunting
species can congregate in
groups around a rich food
source or to breed.
Do sharks ever
29 attack/prey on
other shark species?
Most shark species have fairly
mainly eat squid, for example.
specific diets – blue sharks
But great whites, tiger sharks
and mako sharks will eat
tuna, seals, sea lions,
dolphins and even smaller
shark species. Hammerhead
sharks dine almost exclusively
on rays, which are closely
related to sharks.
Does it have
© Bathynome 30 natural enemies?
While the shark is high up
the food chain, orcas have
been known to attack and kill
great white sharks, and sperm
whales are also occasionally
believed to kill sharks. These
© OpenCage are exceptions, though. Most
of the time, sharks sit firmly at
the top of the food chain.
© Moesmand
© Richard Ling
21