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

capacious White Sharks argon greatly misinterpreted as vicious man-eaters because of the media, movies, and peoples imaginations, but they are in reality large fish who mistake people for seals and other marine life. What is a great washcloth shark? The great white, among the least understood of worlds creatures, is an apex predator, meaning that it is at the top of the nutriment cosmic string with no natural predators. This means great whites have their pick of food when it comes to selecting their prey (Klimley 15).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 keen-sighted and weighed 7302 pounds. Its ancestors, now extinct, were three times this size, with teeth that were six inches long (White Shark). Today sharks are represented by over 600 species (Long). Great whites are part of a class know as mackerel sha rks, a grouping which includes the salmon, porbeagle, and maco shark (MacGregor 46). Unlike the true fishes, sharks do not have versed bone, but instead have a cartilaginous skeleton (Long). This bulletproof flexible material is found in the ridge of your nose and in your earlobes. Because cartilage does not leave fossil remains like bones, there are no fossils of ancient sharks- just their teeth (Klimley 56). Little is know about great whites because they are enormous, bulky, and hard to handle. And thats when theyre dead. Their tree trunk temperature is sometimes ten to fifteen degrees Celsius warmer than the surrounding water, which makes them efficient predators in cool water (Gorman 15). The back of the shark is a dull grayness color and the underside is colored white. The tail is crescent shaped. There 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 the only shark that can hold its head above water to realize what is happening on the surface (MacGregor 47). It has been said that sharks do not drown finished water as much as they fly through it with their torpedo like body (Gorman 25). The fins of a shark serve weighty roles in this action. As the shark moves the Caudal, back, fin to propel it forward, careful margin 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 CitedAll 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. subject area Geographic Apr. 2000 2-29.Klimley, A.P, Anderson, S.D, Henderson, R.P, and P. Pyle. Great White Sharks the biology of Carcharodon 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>.