What is the world's largest fish?
The harmless whale shark holds the title of largest fish, with the record being a 59 footer captured in Thailand in 1919.
What is the world's healthiest animal?
Sharks apparently are the only animals that never get sick. As far as is known, they are immune to every known disease including cancer.
Do dolphins use tools?
Some bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, wear marine sponges on their snouts to protect them while digging for food. The habit is mostly passed from mothers to their offspring.
Are sharks older than trees?
Sharks have been around for more than 400 million years, so they're older than trees, which appeared roughly 350 million years ago.
Which shark lives the longest?
The Greenland shark is the longest-living vertebrate known. A 2016 study estimated one was at least 272 years old and possibly close to 400.
Do sharks have bones?
Sharks don't have bones. Their skeletons are made of cartilage, the same flexible material in human ears and noses, which makes them lighter and more flexible.
Can sharks sense electricity?
Sharks have special organs called ampullae of Lorenzini that detect the tiny electric fields produced by other animals' muscles, which helps them find hidden prey.
What is the largest fish in the world?
The whale shark is the largest fish in the world and can grow longer than 40 feet, but it feeds mostly on tiny plankton and is harmless to humans.
Do sharks have to keep swimming to breathe?
Some sharks, like great whites, must keep swimming to push water over their gills, but others, like nurse sharks, can rest on the seafloor and pump water over their gills instead.
How many sharks do humans kill each year?
A 2013 study estimated that humans kill about 100 million sharks each year, many for their fins, which has pushed many species toward extinction.
How many teeth does a shark go through?
Sharks constantly replace lost teeth with new ones from rows behind them, and some sharks go through thousands of teeth in a lifetime.
How common are shark attacks?
Unprovoked shark bites on humans are rare, usually fewer than 100 per year worldwide, and only a handful are fatal. People are far more dangerous to sharks than sharks are to people.
What is shark skin made of?
Shark skin is covered in tiny tooth-like scales called dermal denticles, which reduce drag while swimming and feel like sandpaper if you rub them the wrong way.
Do orcas hunt great white sharks?
Orcas off South Africa have been seen hunting great white sharks.