IUCN Red List of
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What's This?
Great White Shark: Life & Natural History
For Eductors
Lesson Plans & Activities
What I can do
Help end the myth that sharks are mindless man-eaters. Rethink the shark and then share the facts with your friends and family.
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Shark Senses
Great White Sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) became the ocean’s top hunters through the evolution of supremely-adapted senses and physiology.
SMELL
The most acute sense of the Great White Shark is smell. They are able to detect substances of about 1 part per 10 billion parts water. 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 the ears 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
Great White Sharks have great vision. The retina of the Great White Shark’s 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. The sharks make 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 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 250 meters (820 feet) away.
Diversity
Smithsonian Links
Species Ecology
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. The Great White Shark is an apex predator 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 from South Africa to Australia. It’s the longest recorded migration of any fish. The torpedo shape of the Great White is built for speed – up to 50 kph/ 35 mph. And then there are the teeth -- 300 total in up to seven rows. But more than brawn, the Great White has a tremendous brain that coordinates all the highly-developed senses of this efficient hunter.
Smithsonian Links
Evolution
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 Giant Megatooth (Carcharadon 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.
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. Smithsonian scholars Robert Purdy, Victor Springer and Matt Carrano, teamed up with scientific illustrator Mary Parrish to come up with this vision of what the fearsome predator might have looked like.
Smithsonian Links
Links to Other Sites
Shark Relatives
An X-ray image of a Monterey skate, Raja montereyensis, reveals a spine that extends like a tail out from the pelvic fin. The skeletons of skates, rays, chimaeras, and sharks are made of cartilage, rather than bone.
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