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FOR EDUCATORS

LESSON PLANS & ACTIVITIES

Great White Shark

(Carcharodon carcharias)

the Ocean Portal Team

Vulnerable

IUCN Red List of Endangered Species^TM
What's This?

Vulnerable

<p>Great White Sharks breach to hunt -- with split-second timing they grab their prey in one swift snatch. <a href="http://ocean.si.edu/slideshow/photo-sequence-great-white-shark-hunting"><strong>Follow the whole breaching action in this slideshow</strong></a>.</p><p> </p><div class='credit'><strong>Credit:</strong> Â© Morne Hardenberg</div>

Great White Sharks breach to hunt -- with split-second timing they grab their prey in one swift snatch. Follow the whole breaching action in this slideshow.

Credit:

Sharks are much older than dinosaurs. Their ancestry dates back more than 400 million years, and they are one of evolution’s greatest success stories. These animals are uniquely adapted to their ocean environment with six highly refined senses of smell, hearing, touch, taste, sight, and even electromagnetism. As the top predators in the ocean, Great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) face only one real threat to their survival: us. The assaults are many. By-catch: the accidental killing of sharks by fishermen's longlines and trawlers. Illegal poaching: selling shark fins for soup. Illegal hunting: sportsfishing for shark jaws as trophies. Nets: placed along coastlines to keep sharks away from beaches. Pollution: toxins and heavy metals that build up in the shark's body. In some areas great white populations have plummeted by over 70%. If not stopped, it will lead to the extinction of this ancient species.

Life & Natural History

Great White Sharks are powerful swimmers, capable of going 50 kph/35 mph.

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Brains over Brawn

Many scientists now believe that great white sharks are intelligent, highly inquisitive creatures. When great whites gather, they seem to show different behaviors, from open-mouthed gaping at one another to assertive body-slams. These sharks are top predators throughout the world's ocean, predominantly in temperate and subtropical waters. Great whites migrate long distances. Some make journeys from the Hawaiian Islands to California, and one shark that swam from from South Africa to Australia made the longest recorded migration of any fish.

The torpedo shape of the great white is built for speed: up to 35 miles per hour (50 kilometers per hour). And then there are the teeth -- 300 total in up to seven rows.

But more than brawn, the great white shark has a tremendous brain that coordinates all the highly-developed senses of this efficient hunter. Its prey, including seals and dolphins, are very clever animals, and the shark has to have enough brains to outsmart them. Despite their reputation as lone hunters, great whites will cooperate with one another, hunting in groups and sharing the spoils. And some researchers have been surprised by how fast they learn.

Sharks have six highly refined senses: smell, hearing, touch, taste, sight, and electromagnetism. These finely honed senses, along with a sleek, torpedo-shaped body, make most sharks highly skilled hunters.

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Shark Senses

Great whites became the ocean’s top hunters through the evolution of supremely-adapted senses and physiology.

SMELL
Great white sharks' most acute sense is smell. If there were just a single drop of blood floating in 10 billion drops of water, they could smell it! Their nostrils are on the underside of the snout and lead to an organ called the olfactory bulb. The great white’s olfactory bulb is reported to be the largest of any shark.

HEARING
Shark external ears are hard to see: they are just two small openings behind and above the eyes. The ears may be small, but they’re powerful. Inside, there are cells that can sense even the tiniest vibration in the surrounding water. Sharks also have an ‘ear stone’ that responds to gravity, giving the animal clues as to where it is in the water: head up, head down, right side up, or upside down.

VISION
A great white sharks has great vision. The retina of its eye is divided into two areas – one adapted for day vision, the other for low-light and night. To protect itself, the great white shark can roll its eye backward into the socket when threatened.

ELECTRO-RECEPTION
Sharks have a sense that humans can only be in awe of – they can sense an electrical field. A series of pores on the shark’s snout are filled with cells called the Ampullae of Lorenzini that can feel the power and direction of electrical currents. Scientists have discovered that sharks can use this sense to navigate through the open ocean by following an electrical ‘map’ of the magnetic fields that crisscross the Earth’s crust.

TASTE
Great white sharks are opportunistic eaters. Depending on the season, area and age, they will hunt seals and sea lions, fish, squid, and even other sharks. They have taste buds inside their mouths and throats that enable them to identify the food before swallowing.

TOUCH
Great white sharks have an elaborate sense of touch through what’s called the lateral line – a line that extends along the middle of the shark’s body from its tail to its head. This line, which is found in all fish, is made of cells that can perceive vibrations in the water. Sharks can detect both the direction and amount of movement made by prey, even from as far as 820 feet (250 meters) away.

The smallest shark, a dwarf lantern shark, is rarely seen and little-known.

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Diversity

Sharks come in all shapes and sizes. Today there are more than 440 known species -- from the 6-inch long dwarf lantern shark (Etmopterus perryi) to the 60-foot long whale shark (Rhincodon typus).

Unlike typical fish, sharks do not produce large amounts of small eggs. Instead, they invest their resources in fewer, larger eggs which are more likely to grow into adults. Some sharks lay eggs, while others give live birth. Great white sharks gestate their pups for a year before giving birth – that’s longer than humans. Between 2 to 12 babies are born at a time.

Great whites can live up to 60 years, maybe more. Most sharks are slow to grow and take a long time to mature. That means that on the whole, sharks reproduce only a few young, making them all the more vulnerable to extinction.

Evolution

Fossil tooth whorl of ancient shark.

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Shark Ancestors

We may think that great whites are massive, but their ancestors would likely have made them appear midgets by comparison. Ancient sharks called the Megalodon (Carcharodon megalodon), appeared on Earth more than 20 million years ago. Based on fossils, scientists believe these sharks could have been as big as a school bus—big enough to probably feast on whales.

For a long time, scientists thought the megalodon was the direct ancestor of great white sharks. But new fossil evidence, announced in November 2012, suggest that it was more closely related to an ancestor of mako sharks—smaller but faster fish-eating sharks.

Another shark ancestor swam the ocean 290 million years before today. Picture a shark with a teeth shaped in a ring like a saw. This fossil comes from the long-extinct Helicoprion, a buzzsaw with fins. But what did this animal actually look like? All scientists had to go on was a few fossil specimens and came up with a litany of possibilities, some more plausible than others.

The face of Helicoprion was finally uncovered when a well-preserved fossil was brought in for a CT scan, and the result was published in 2013. Most of the toothy spiral is buried in the fish's lower jaw, with just a few teeth emerging. Using the new evidence, the reconstruction is the most accurate to date—and proves some earlier reconstructions wrong. The study also found that Helicoprion is not the ancestor of a great white shark but, rather, to the chimaeras, a group of deep sea shark relatives.

Science

Scientist - Alison Kock

Save Our Seas scientist Alison Kock tags a Great White Shark.

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Scientist - Alison Kock

Marine biologist Alison Kock has devoted her life to finding the facts and defusing the myths about great white sharks. "My dad and I used to go on regular diving expeditions together, which fostered a love for ocean creatures, especially sharks. I will never forget the first time I saw a white shark flying clean out of the water and into the air while chasing a seal. From that day onwards, I have spent thousands of hours at sea studying these vulnerable creatures and have been fortunate to get to know that the real white shark is not a mindless killer. They are complex and majestic animals that are completely misunderstood."

Human Connections

Great white sharks have many more reasons to fear people than people have to fear them. Thousands of sharks are killed every year especially for shark fin soup.

Conservation

Shark attack headlines in South Africa.

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Why We Should Save Sharks

Fear of sharks seems to be encoded in our genes. Yet humans are rarely attacked by a shark, while millions of sharks are killed by humans. Some populations of shark species, such as the shortspine spurdog, may have dropped by 95 percent. The sharks’ population decline has a ripple effect – throwing entire marine ecosystems out of balance. Shark species often are especially vulnerable to overfishing because of specific life characteristics, such as not mating until later in life, and giving birth to small litters of live young. Sharks even have allies from a group of people who you would least expect - shark attack survivors are banding together in order to urge people to protect sharks.

Why save sharks? The reasons are many. Sharks keep the ocean healthy because they keep different prey species from becoming overabundant. Sharks keep the ocean clean by scavenging on dead animals. Sharks keep other species more fit by weeding out sick and weaker individuals. And sharks are beautiful – like lions and gorillas – crowning achievements of evolution.

Cultural Connections

A fisherman holds a freshly cut dorsal fin from a scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini). Every year, humans kill an estimated 70 million sharks. Removing sharks in large numbers can have ripple effects that throw entire ecosystems out of balance.

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Shark Fin Soup

Shark fin soup is considered a delicacy in many Asian countries – once reserved only for the wealthy or for very special occasions. But rising incomes in Asia are having a disastrous impact on sharks. To make the soup, the fins of the sharks are sliced off and the rest of the body is tossed back in the water, dead or alive. The United Nations estimates that as many as 73 million sharks are killed annually to supply fins for soup. Fins from Great White Sharks can fetch the highest prices because of their rarity and size. In Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, conservationists and chefs are leading campaigns to stop serving shark fin soup.

TAGS:

Human impacts, Bycatch, Shark finning, Senses

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Comments

It makes me so SAD to have

It makes me so SAD to have such a fish (shark) like that, and then they just use it for the fins!!!
MUST STOP IT , make it protected.

great white sharks are cool

Hi,I think that it is so cool

Hi,I think that it is so cool that sharks were here even before dinosaurs!I mean if we think about why were they not dead then 400 million years ago too?That would be awesome to find out then.'How Come Sharks Are Not Dead Like The Dinos'
If you know why post a comment.
Thanks,
Anonymous <3

great white shark

how long do great white sharks live?

question?

what are great whites lifespan.

Great White Lifespan

Studies have shown that the average lifespan of a great white shark is around 30 years.

DON/T KILL SHARKS

JAPAN AND INLAND PEOPLE PLAESE DONT KILL OUR SHARKS BECAUSE WE NEED THEM DIVERS CAN DISCOVER REAL SHARKS PLEASE DONT KILL OUR SHARKS OR I WILL COME TO YOU AND I WILL WRITE SOMETHING IN HERE I BETTER NOT HERE THAT YOU ARE STILL KILING SHARKS SO DON/T KILL THEM...

Awesome Sharks

I have to say.That was awesome.I never knew any of that.I really enjoyed it and kind of opedon't meet one swimming though!

using this as a school rescourse

helpful, entertaining, but i failed , can you get to the main point.

sharks are the best creature

sharks are the best creature even if they hurt you

Project

I am doing a project on Great Whites and this helped a lot!

sharks

very cool

ty for this information

this page is really useful for my project.

thanks for all the info! it

thanks for all the info! it helped in my eng facts assignment!

Great for my project

This is GREAT for my project, but how come it doesn'y have a bibliography

Good

I didn't know much about sharks but after I read this article I knew a lot more about sharks now then I did then. I'm so glad I chose to read this article.

What i Learned

i learned alot by just reading this front page and the thing that is cool is
that sharks are older than dinosaursi never liked sharks but they're
pretty awsome.

this site is awesome

this is one of the best sights i have ben to to look up sharks. i had a project on sharks and this helped me soooooooooo much :) thanks:)

thanks

it helped so much in my project thank you

poor seal

poor seal. why do sharks eat cute things

i like sharks and i know not

i like sharks and i know not alot of people care but its horrible because the sharks fins are cut off then while they are still alive they are pushed back into the sea where they drown get eaten or starv to death but what i ask is that would you like this to happen to you? if not why do it to another animal?

cool

this is so cool

Great White Shark | Ocean Portal | Smithsonian

Today, I went to the beachfront with my children. I found a
sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said "You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear." She placed
the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a
hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to
go back! LoL I know this is entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!

Here is my web site - bloating paleolithic diet and bloating

I love great whites and was

I love great whites and was doing a research paper on them. This site helped soooooo much!

Great White Presentation

Most helpful reliable site! I am obsessed with sharks and I also had a presentation to do on the great whites in biology so this site was by far one of the best! Thank you!

awsome

this website is awsome. this will help me so much on my project:)but really protect the sharks:(

Why I like this page

I am a big time shark lover and I was doing some research on sharks for a science project and I found this page very helpful in my research. I loved the pictures, the information was clearly written,and the headlines were correctly synchronized with the sections. Loved the article and I know I will get an A on this project. THANKS!

Deep Sea Exploration

thanks you made me have a heck of information for my project

thanx

really good info for assignment

question?

What type of doctor would see the great white if it is sick?

murcury

maybe a peice on how the lower the sharks swim the more murcury are in the fish they eat meaning in turns we are eating some murcury by eating shark fin soup.

I like sharks....

i love the picture what is it

i love the picture what is it eating a seal . lololololol

This is a really fascinating

This is a really fascinating and interesting article on sharks

i love sharks i would like to

i love sharks i would like to see one in real life

I like sharks. (:

nice

For more information and

For more information and facts on the Great White Shark, visit the Encyclopedia of Life.

A very good sight, there

A very good sight, there should be more facts for people to look at which I don't see here

i eat sharks :)

Ahhhhhh your not soppost to

Ahhhhhh your not soppost to eat sharks!!!!!'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Weirdo!!!!!!!!!!

so you eat shark? you are

so you eat shark? you are kidding right? if you do it will not be long before you start to get sick FROM ALL THE MERCURY IT HAS IN IT'S SYSTEM.
Instead of letting the shark swim around in your bowl or on a plate why do you not let them swim where they are helping the enviroment? And being the beautiful creature GOD put on this earth.

Pamela F

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