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- Mostly sharks eat other sharks, but about
100 people are attacked by them each year, of whom 50 die.
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- Great white sharks can grow to 11m
in length.
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- Sharks are keen-sensed fishes that
eat nearly all large marine animals.
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- The whale shark is the largest fish
in the sea, measuring up to 15 m (49 ft) in length.
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- The cookie-cutter shark, in contrast,
measures less than 50 cm (19 in) in length.
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- Sharks are found in all seas and are
especially abundant in tropical and subtropical waters. Many
species migrate up rivers.
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- Most sharks produce large, well-developed
offspring that number, at the most, 100 to a litter.
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- Most sharks are ovoviviparous, hatching
the eggs within the female and bearing live young. However, some
lay eggs externally.
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- At birth, sharks of some larger species
are more than 1 m (3 ft) long and are swift, capable swimmers.
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- A shark can get through thousands of
teeth in its lifetime.
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- Sharks are always losing their teeth.
When the front ones wear out, new ones from the row behind grow
in to replace them.
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- Different sharks have different shaped
teeth depending on what they eat.
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- Using delicate pressure-sensing organs
on the sides of a great white's body, the shark can pick up vibrations
from fishes and bathers within a radius of several kilometres.
Its exceptional sense of smell also enables it to home in on
food. It could detect a single drop of blood in a swimming pool.
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- A great white shark was the star of
a scary 1970's film called 'Jaws'. In the film, it was responsible
for killing unsuspecting swimmers, but in reality attacks on
people are rare.
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- The shark's pale creature's pale colouring
helps it blend into the watery scenery and sneak up on its prey.
From underneath, its white belly looks like a bright patch of
sunlight underwater.
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- One of the largest sets of great white
shark jaws in the world is 57.5cm (22.5 in).
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- There are 400 species of shark.
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- Sharks have the same five senses as
humans, but they also have special pores on top of their heads
which can sense electrical signals generated by swimming dinner.
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- The hammerhead shark got its name because
it looks like it swallowed a hammer.
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- The leopard shark spends a lot of time
lurking near the sea bed.
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