Page 26 - Shark

Teeth and diet

Sharks continually lose their teeth.
When the front ones wear out they are
replaced by new ones growing in
another row behind them. An individual
shark can get through thousands
of teeth in a lifetime. Animals, like
elephants and seals, cannot replace
their teeth and die when they wear out.
As the shark grows, its new teeth are
larger than the ones they replace.
Sharks’ teeth come in many shapes
according to what kind of food they
Mouth eat. Teeth, like small spikes, are used
widE opEn
Basking for gripping small prey. Serrated teeth
sharks swim
Gill along with their are used for cutting. Long, curved teeth
Tiny teeth of basking shark rakers mouths open get hold of slippery fish. Blunt teeth
to catch shrimp and
other small creatures, crunch up shellfish. A few species of
EpaulEttE Eating called plankton, that drift shark, like basking and whale sharks,
Epaulette sharks live on in the sea. The food is
coral reefs in the trapped on rows of bristles have tiny teeth compared to their great
southwest Pacific called gill rakers as the size. They do not use their teeth to
Ocean around water flows through the
Australia and mouth and out through feed, but instead filter food out of the
Papua New the gill slits. The gill rakers water. Some sharks produce different-
Guinea. They are shed each year during
grow to about the winter months when shaped teeth as they grow older.
3 ft (1m) long and there is little food around.
can crawl along the bottom A new set of rakers grows
using their pectoral fins. in the spring and then the
These sharks search among basking sharks can start to
the shallows and tidepools for feed again.
small fish, crabs, shrimp, and
other small creatures to eat.

SMilE plEaSE
Swell sharks (top right) from the eastern
Pacific Ocean have big mouths for
their 3-ft (1-m) length. Armed with
rows of tiny teeth, these sharks eat
bony fish that they ambush at night
while the fish rest on the seabed.
Only the Port Jackson’s rows of
small front teeth (bottom right) are
Epaulette eating visible when its mouth is Mouth of
open. At the back of its jaws swell shark
are strong, flat teeth for crushing
CrunChy diEt
Port Jackson sharks have small, shelled prey.
pointed front teeth to grasp their prey.
The strong, flat back teeth can crunch
through hard-shelled crabs, mussels
(right), and sea urchins (below right).
Section through a Port Jackson’s jaws

Mouth of
Port Jackson

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