The Great White Shark Essay

Great Essays
Show More
Sharks don’t fossilize well because they’re from the class of chondrichthyes meaning their skeletons are made of cartilage, a flexible connective tissue. This is one of the reasons why there is a disagreement over when the first shark first existed. However, shark teeth do fossilize well and sharks produce thousands of teeth in a lifetime. The oldest shark teeth date back to the Devonian Period about 400 million years ago and were found in Europe. Shark scales also fossilize well. Paleontologists can discover many important things from fossilized shark teeth and scales even though it doesn’t seem like much. Their discoveries include information about species, size and behavior. While it is controversial, some paleontologists believe that the first scales are from the Ordovician Period 455 million years ago. Nonetheless, the scales found in Siberia and Mongolia during the SIlurian Period 420 million years ago are definitely from sharks.
More complete fossilized shark remains are …show more content…
This shark has unique blood flow that circulates in opposite direction for an efficient transfer of metabolic heat.This allows for heat to exchange efficiently around the body in the brain, swimming muscles and stomach, so the Great White can go in waters too cold for other sharks. Reproduction for the Great White is like many other sharks, it generically uses internal fertilization to develop offspring. The mother carries the yolk like shelled eggs until body development is complete, this time period of her life is called ovoviviparity. After a year or longer he pups (baby sharks) are ready to be born in to the water. Right when the pups leave their parents they are forced to fend for themselves and live on their own. It can be said that it takes up to a whole year or longer for the mother to rebuild her energy before becoming a parent

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Brief Summary: The Great White Shark
    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Brief Summary: The Great White Shark

    The Great White Shark Great white sharks are thought to be one of the most vicious animals on earth because of how they are represented in movies and television shows. In reality they're really just another animal trying to stay alive. Great white sharks are recognized by the grey skin, white bellies, a bullet shaped build and rows of more than 300 really sharp triangular teeth. Great whites are the largest predatory animals in water in the world.…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Executive Summary: The Great White Sharks
    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Executive Summary: The Great White Sharks

    The Great White Sharks along with a few other marine organisms such as stingrays, chimaera and skates are unique as their skeletons are made of cartilage rather than bone. Majority of Great Whites can measure up to a whopping 15 feet (4.6 metres) with an average weight of 1,500-2,450 pounds. Females tend to grow larger than males and some specimens have been recorded exceeding 20 feet (6 metres) and weighing up to 5000 pounds. The Great White has a slate, grey upper body which aids them when trying to blend in with rocky coastal sea floor and their name derives from their white underbellies. Their powerful tails can propel them through the water at speeds of 24km/h due to their extremely streamlined, torpedo shaped bodies.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Fish Yolk Stages
    • 1862 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Fish Yolk Stages

    Chapter 5 Dispute: Humans and Sharks both have four gill arches as embryos, but the germ layers and arches develop into unrelated structure in each organism My Dispute Statement: Both sharks and humans develop gill arches when enveloped in the embryo, with the arches creating very similar structures and functions in both. In humans during conception, 4 swellings appear on the throat area. These swellings called arches develop to create many of the structures and functions inside the head.…

    • 1862 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Megaladon Teeth Research Paper
    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Megaladon Teeth Research Paper

    This makes these current finds especially exciting to paleontologists as it gives them more to work with in their research into the ancient sea creature. Size of Megaladon Based on Great White Research published in 2013 from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and co-authored by Catalina Pimiento of the University of Florida, compared the growth and size of the Megalodon to that of current day Great White sharks. The research estimates that each inch of tooth size equals about 10-feet in length of the animal. That means that a 2-inch tooth from a Great White (may not seem big, but just get out your ruler), would be a shark 20-feet in length.…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Tiger Shark Adaptations
    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Tiger Shark Adaptations

    Do you know what sea animal has stripes, is big, and moves quickly? If you guessed the Tiger Shark, you are correct. First, there are many physical characteristics of the tiger shark. The tiger shark can grow to be 18 feet in length, also these unusual sharks can grow to be 2,000 pounds in weight. They have an ovaly shape body and a triangular shape tail.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Disappearing Spoon Chapter 1 Summary
    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Disappearing Spoon Chapter 1 Summary

    Through this process, they collected fish and other creatures, many spherical rocks, and hunks of mineralized ice cream cones. The hunks were mostly consisted of manganese. When they cracked open the cone, they discovered that manganese formed around a giant shark teeth. By 1960s, the discovery of manganese created the theory that megalodons are still alive. Megalodons were said to be extinct.…

    • 1143 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Hammerhead Sharks Research Paper
    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Hammerhead Sharks Research Paper

    Hammerhead Sharks Hammerhead sharks are very unusual creatures. They are not like other sharks at all, one may think these bizarre sharks are vicious, but really they are not. These creatures are a group of sharks in a family called Sphyrnidae, so named for the unusual and distinctive structure of the head. This research paper is for education and to inform fellow human beings. This paper will also include the following topics, physical features, habitat, food source, reproduction, and another type of hammerhead shark: Wingheads.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Dogfish Research Paper
    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Dogfish Research Paper

    The Squalus acanthus is nicknamed the dog fish because they are known to feed in packs which is similar to the habits of dogs, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium website. These sharks are classified as chondrichthyes (“Squalus Acanthias”). According to the article Spiny Dogfish, the dogfish’s relatives include the Pygmy shark and the Sleeper shark. The Squalus acanthus has an endoskeleton skeleton type. They live in the interdial zone up to 900 meters deep.…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Arctic Wolf Research Paper
    • 1654 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Arctic Wolf Research Paper

    When the pups are born they can not see or hear, so they stay in the care of their mother for close to three months before joining the pack. Once the pups are about two years old they will try to leave the pack and create their…

    • 1654 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Africanus And Hominid Skull Similarities
    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Africanus And Hominid Skull Similarities

    They have had the teeth for a long time coming from their ancestors however it has gotten taller and tougher than other ancestors so they have a more preferable trait as they can tear strong flesh now so there are more options for food. The change came about because other animals may have been eating their share of food because they had stronger teeth so they had to make their teeth stronger to survive. The second example is about how the hoofed mammals seemed to have come from the same ancestor. The photo claims that whale ancestors had hooves as well.…

    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Research Paper On Stingrays
    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Research Paper On Stingrays

    They have massive sharp teeth, and its teeth can change throughout the years. The great white has an impeccable sense of smell, they could smell a single drop of blood in one hundred liters of water. Its amazing sense of smell can help it catch its prey if an animal is hurt or even five miles away in the ocean, it would probably find and eat it. As sometimes it seems as though the great white shark is solitary, it can travel with one, or more sharks, but they like to keep small groups. The great white shark is vulnerable, due to overfishing.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Importance Of Puppy Mills
    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Importance Of Puppy Mills

    After the puppies are born, they are taken away from their mothers and sold to stores by the 4th or 8th week of their lives. Many die due to the fact that most are taken before they are weaned. This also confuses the puppies, and many end up dying because they do not know how to perform simple tasks such as eating. This results in starvation and death for many puppies before they are able to reach adoption age. Also, the dogs begin to develop fear behaviors and lack of socialization skills with humans and other animals.…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Why Do Sharks Hunt?
    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Why Do Sharks Hunt?

    How Sharks Hunt Long viewed as dimwitted, bloodthirsty monsters, sharks are among the most intelligent species of fish. In fact, sharks have shown to be very versatile and efficient in their hunting methods. Sharks use a variety of hunting methods to capture their prey: adaptation, use of the senses, and strenuous power. Shark Adaptation. Adaptation for a shark is crucial for its hunting and more so for its survival.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Great White Shark Research Paper
    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Great White Shark Research Paper

    The great white shark: the king of ocean, the evil ruler, destroying everything in it’s path. From the looks of them, it would be understandable to make this assumption. But let’s clear the air for our good friend, the great white. In fact, over 80% percent of shark attacks had survivors. I mean, they lost a limb maybe, but they survived!…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Persuasive Essay: Why Sharks Aren T Scary
    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Persuasive Essay: Why Sharks Aren T Scary

    Sharks have no bones and that ’s one of the reasons that sharks have so many rows of teeth. They have no jawbone so when they try to chomp fish the many teeth help them. Their teeth also have no roots which is another…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings