The Secret Life Of Great White Sharks Essay -- essays research papers

Great White Sharks are greatly misinterpreted as vicious man-eaters because of the media, movies, and peoples imaginations, but they are actually large fish who mistake people for seals and other marine life. What is a great white shark? The great white, among the to the lowest degree understood of Earths creatures, is an apex predator, meaning that it is at the top of the food chain with no natural predators. This means great whites have their pull off of food when it comes to selecting their prey (Klimley 15).genus Carcharodon carcharias, better know as the great white shark, have existed as a group for over 350 million age (Long). Its name means ragged-toothed (Gorman 10). The largest white shark on record was 21 feet long and weighed 7302 pounds. Its ancestors, now extinct, were three times this size, with teeth that were six inches long (White Shark). instantly sharks are represented by over 600 species (Long). Great whites are part of a grouping know as mackerel sharks, a grouping which includes the salmon, porbeagle, and maco shark (MacGregor 46). hostile the true fishes, sharks do not have internal bone, but instead have a cartilaginous skeleton (Long). This stiff flexible material is instal in the ridge of your nose and in your earlobes. Because cartilage does not leave fossil remains same(p) bones, there are no fossils of ancient sharks- ripe their teeth (Klimley 56). Little is known about great whites because they are enormous, bulky, and hard to handle. And thats when theyre dead. Their body temperature is sometimes ten to fifteen degrees Celsius warmer than the border water, which makes them efficient predators in cool water (Gorman 15). The back of the shark is a dull gray color and the underside is colored white. The tail is crescent shaped. on that point are five gill slits on great white sharks. Studying a live great white shark up close and in detail is, for obvious reasons, practically impossible (Sanders 31). The great white is th e only shark that can hold its head above water to see what is contingency on the surface (MacGregor 47). It has been said that sharks do not swim through water as much as they fly through it with their torpedo like body (Gorman 25). The fins of a shark serve important roles in this action. As the shark moves the Caudal, back, fin to propel it forward, careful adjustment of the pectoral, side, and dorsal, top, fins keep the shark leve... ...is planet. For them to be driven to extinction by man, a relative newcomer, would be more than an ecological tragedy it would be a moral travesty (Gorman 29). Works Cited totally About Sharks. 5 Feb 2001. <<a href="http//www.ozemail.com.au/bilsons/sharks.htm">http//www.ozemail.com.au/bilsons/sharks.htm>.Bowman, S.C. Shark Attacks. Readers Digest July. 1995 74-8.Gorman, Jessica. Inside the Great White. National Geographic Apr. 2000 2-29.Klimley, A.P, Anderson, S.D, Henderson, R.P, and P. Pyle. Great White Sharks the biology of Ca rcharodon carcharias. New York American Publishing Inc., 1996.Long, Douglas. The White Shark. 5 Feb 2001 <<a href="http//www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/Doug/shark.html">http//www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/Doug/shark.html>.MacGregor, Elise. Beyond Jaws. Windsurfing Magazine. Sept/Oct. 1993 45-9.Martin, Glen. Great White Sharks. Discover. June. 1999 54-61. Sanders, Zack. A Great White Shark. Newsweek. Oct. 1996 30- 36.White Sharks. 20 Feb 2001. <<a href="http//www.aqua.org/animals/species/whitshark.html">http//www.aqua.org/animals/species/whitshark.html>.