This is a defining feature of elasmobranchs, as most fish have skeletons made of bone. Like other elasmobranchs (a subclass of animals that also includes rays and skates), sharks have skeletons made of cartilage-the hard but flexible material that makes up human noses and ears. No matter their size, all sharks have similar anatomy. The smallest shark, a dwarf lantern shark, is rarely seen and little-known. Anatomy, Diversity & Evolution Anatomy What makes a shark a shark? To protect them, communities and companies around the world are enacting science-based fisheries management policies, setting up shark sanctuaries, and banning the practice of shark finning and the trade of shark fins. (This is despite the fact that you are more likely to be killed by a lightning strike than bitten by a shark, and more likely to be killed by a dog attack than a shark attack.) Combined, these actions have decreased many shark populations by 90 percent since large-scale fishing began.Īll of this puts these incredible animals-and the ecosystems in which they play a role-in jeopardy.

And because of needless fear spurred on by films such as Jaws, the instinct for some is to hurt or kill sharks that come near-such as the controversial shark culling in Australia. Sharks are accidentally caught in nets or on long line fishing gear. Rising demand for shark fins to make shark fin soup, an Asian delicacy, has resulted in increased shark fishing worldwide an estimated 100 million sharks are killed by fisheries every year. Sharks and their relatives were the first vertebrate predators, and their prowess, honed over millions of years of evolution, allows them to hunt as top predators and keep ecosystems in balance.īut sharks are in trouble around the world. Wherever they live, sharks play an important role in ocean ecosystems-especially the larger species that are more “scary” to people. They are found in just about every kind of ocean habitat, including the deep sea, open ocean, coral reefs, and under the Arctic ice. They come in a variety of colors (including bubble gum pink), and some feed on tiny plankton while others prefer larger fish and squids. They range in size from the length of a human hand to more than 39 feet (12 meters) long half of all shark species are less than one meter (or about 3 feet) long. That generalization does sharks a huge disservice, as they have far more variety than that. Yet when most people think of these cartilaginous fish, a single image comes to mind: a large, sharp-toothed and scary beast. There are more than 500 species of sharks swimming in the world’s ocean.

Great white shark feed and grow fish