Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I Shall Eat Thee in the Ocean/Sea.


Sharks are marine animals that mostly live in the ocean, although there are a couple of species that do live in rivers(bull sharks, spear tooth sharks, and a few others). Sharks could be considered the ultimate hunters of the ocean, with a variety of attributes that make them deadly. One of their most obvious attributes is their teeth. At the most sharks can have at least five rows of teeth! Why? Because throughout their lives they lose more teeth than you can imagine just trying to get prey. The shape of the tooth varies from specie to specie. Take for example a Shortfin Mako shark tooth is narrow simple, whilst the tiger tooth shark is wider with little ridges.

Another aspect that makes sharks so terrifying is their skeletons. Yes, that’s right their skeletons. Unlike humans, a shark’s skeleton is made of cartilage, more flexible, lighter and softer version of bone, that allows them to turn and twist faster in the water. One more attribute that is a little more obscure is their skin, which is like sand paper. If you brushed up against a shark hard enough you would actually scrape off some of your skin. The rough and tough skin helps a shark prevent any injury to themselves, making it harder to hurt the shark, and easier for the shark to hurt it’s victim. Another deadly aspect is their sense of hearing. Their hearing is so intense that they can hear things moving from almost a half a mile away. One more aspect similar to a shark’s keen hearing is a nerve called a lateral line which runs up and down the whole of their body, letting them feel vibrations. And that’s not all! They also have a keen sense of smell, and this sense of smell is probably their strongest. They can smell blood from many, many feet away. With all of these senses combing(and don’t forget eyesight, they have excellent eye sight) it’s near impossible to escape from a shark attack! They are indeed one of the most dangerous creatures in the ocean, and one you would definitely want to stay away from(don’t worry, they won’t come hunting for you unless they mistake you another marine creature, or you’re bleeding profusely, in the case that you are and there’s a shark around well…).



About the pictures(click on pictures for source):

1st picture: A shortfin Mako Shark, one of the fastest and sleekest sharks around also called the "perfect" shark because of their sleek, smooth and fast bodies. Their teeth are as described above: narrow and pointy.

2nd picture: A great white shark. Probably the most well known shark around. These giants can grow up to twenty four feet and is probably the top predatory shark.

3rd picture: A thresher Shark. As you can see this specie of shark has a special, whiplike almost the length of it's whole body. With the tail, they can carry extremely high amounts of momentum, so much that they are capable of jumping out of the water!

4th picture: A leopard shark. The leopard shark is probably one of the boldest skinned sharks that you can recognize immediately. In the wild their skin patterns help camouflage them.



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