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Great White Shark

For more Info on the Great White Shark, visit the Encyclopedia of Life

Vulnerable

IUCN Red List of Endangered Species^TM
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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>

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.

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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.

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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

Comments

this site has been a very

this site has been a very good help to me because i am have been doing a powerpoint on great white sharks and i think it will inspire many people with your help thank you

Sharks are really cool

i have a collection of shark

i have a collection of shark teeth

WOW i never knew that we are

WOW i never knew that we are the ones attacking the sharks and the sharks aren't

It is slow to load- do I need

It is slow to load- do I need the most current flash?

kewlness. i like it

Cool

I♥them! And I like this

I♥them! And I like this article! :)

My goal is to become a marine

My goal is to become a marine biologist when I grow up. I can't wait until I'm in college. I'm gonna definetly swim sharks. No doubt.

this was awesome! Very

this was awesome! Very helpful! Im a student who has to do research on great white sharks so this was really great.

It's interesting and very

It's interesting and very informative! I didn't know any of those facts about sharks!

I am also a student and this

I am also a student and this is a great website!!!

This page become very useful

This page become very useful for my project.

This is my favorite shark!

this was not useful for me at

this was not useful for me at all with my project

thanks

I love sharks! Great for my

I love sharks! Great for my project! :) ♥

Bye bye my Devonian friend.

Bye bye my Devonian friend. I shed a tear for you. :~(

P.S. Tiger Sharks and Bull Sharks are way nastier than the Great White and the Megalodon rocks! But if we do kill all the sharks, where can the Sharkopath come from?

i love you!great for my

i love you!great for my project :)<3

I totally concur with you

I totally concur with you here in Australia by far most shark attacks
are caused by Bronze Whaler ( Bull ) sharks with the White Pointer being
frequently wrongly blamed !! the bull sharks often venture into virtually fresh water rivers etc in search of prey, whereas the Whites are strictly speaking deep water animals..
loobee Lake Macquarie NSW Australia

White in Lake Macquarie,NSW?

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/622122/shark-in-lake-may-be-great-white/

BOTH CAN ATTACK!?!
If a white has ventured through a single (entry/exit) canal into a large body of (salt/ocean) water, in a densely populated area, chances are it will come into contact with and possibly attack humans.... even where it has a lively supply of food. Granted, this may not be in search of prey.

You want to lov on me

wassup mah homies dis b

wassup mah homies dis b awesum fer mah project fo shizzle

They are just beautiful.

They are just beautiful. "Masters of six senses" indeed! If I lived in some other country this would definitely be my calling.

whoa

I really love the great white

I really love the great white shark and believe it deserves to be protected. I admire those people trying to learn more about these sharks and not letting fear get in their way.

wow! this is cool!

This is great for my project.

This is great for my project. Thanks for the info, I need the author of it though. thanks

Hello, I'm so glad the Ocean

Hello,

I'm so glad the Ocean Portal was able to help with your project. For the author, you can credit the Ocean Portal Team.

Thank you so much for visiting!

Im with you on that

i asked how fast a shark can

i asked how fast a shark can swim not how many teeth are in the Natural Museum of Natural History! please answer peoples questions and update this page its not right!

They are magnificents!

Different sharks swim at

Different sharks swim at different speeds. If you read the Life & History section of our Great White Shark Section, you will learn that great whites can swim at speeds up to 50kph/35mph.

If you can't find what you are looking for on the Ocean Portal, try using the search function. If you are looking for very specific information about a certain animal, and that information is not on the Portal, please visit our partner website, The Encyclopedia of Life .

U are so right

what its size?

Is there anything on the

Is there anything on the population structure?

this is really cool! i did

this is really cool! i did not know that!

it is awesome

The shark is the real hero!

what do wights eat

WoW LoOk At DaT tHiNgE DuDe:P

It's sad... We are really

It's sad... We are really cruel, and these are beautiful animals. We should admire and respect them, not hunt them. And thank you for this article...it's great.

i eat sharks :)

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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