Page 28 - Shark

clawS
Claw This ¾-in (19-mm) Friend or foe?
Antenna long copepod digs
its sharp claws into
Head a basking shark’s
skin. It feeds on skin
secretions and blood. Like most animals, sharks have a variety
Basking sharks, of small friends and enemies that choose to
Thoracic infested by these
plate, or body and other parasites, live on or within them. Remoras benefit from
and may even leap sharks because they hitch a ride on them. They
section become irritated
Abdomen clear of the water stick onto sharks using suckers on their heads,
to get rid of them.
but they can also swim well on their own, as
BarnacleS aBoard well as riding bow waves produced by a shark clean teeth
This strange looking swimming though the water. Other kinds of Other animals have
lump is a barnacle, friends too. A bird
related to the ones fish, called pilot fish, also swim with sharks and cleans a crocodile’s
found on the teeth and finds
seashore. In the sea, ride their bow waves. Parasites harm sharks by something tasty to eat.
the larvae, or young, feeding on their skin, blood, or even inside
Soft of this barnacle attach
shell themselves to dorsal them. They may cause the shark discomfort, but parasites
fins of spurdogs or rarely kill the shark. Some parasites, like tapeworms, have
Root dogfish. The root,
or stalk, of this complicated life cycles passing through several different
Rootlet for 1-in (26-mm) long animals before they can infect sharks.
absorbing barnacle has rootlets
food from that absorb nutrients
shark from the shark.

StreamerS
Female Male Copepods are clinging onto the
dorsal fins of this mako shark (above)
and have egg cases streaming out behind
cling-onS them. Each case contains a stack of disk-
These small crustaceans, or copepods shaped eggs. When the eggs are released,
(½ in, 13 mm long), have adhesion they hatch into tiny young, or larvae.
pads to stick onto sharks’ fins. These larvae drift around in the sea,
They feed on skin secretions. passing through several stages
of development before
attaching themselves to
a passing shark.

Sticking
together
Shark suckers, or remoras
(left), live in the world’s
tropical oceans. Each has a
ridged sucker on the top of its head
that it uses to attach itself to sharks and
rays. While hitching a ride, remoras may do their
hosts a favor by nibbling off skin parasites. They may also
steal scraps when the shark has a meal and even feed on the
placenta, or afterbirth, when a shark produces pups (above).

26