Whale Shark

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Facts About Sharks

Here are 25 interesting facts about sharks that you may not have known:

Great White sharks grow about 10 inches per year. When fully grown great white sharks can be as long as 12 to 14 feet.
Sharks go through more teeth than any other animal. They grow new rows of teeth behind their current row until the front ones fall out. Their teeth aren’t held in by the jaw bone, but just embedded in the flesh. They replace each set of teeth every eight days.
Some species of shark can have a total of up to 30,000 teeth in their lifetime.
Whale sharks, a specific species of shark have 300 rows of teeth with hundreds of tiny teeth in each row.
Dried shark skin has had many uses over the years including sandpaper and in Germany and Japan for non-slip grips for swords.
In 1937, it was discovered that shark liver oil was rich with Vitamin A. Sharks were hunted for that Vitamin A until 1950 when a synthetic method of manufacturing Vitamin A was invented.
The average life expectancy of a shark is only 25 years, however some sharks can live to be 100.
There is a species of sharks called dogfish sharks. They are named this because of the similarity to a pack of wild dogs went they attack their prey.
The Great White shark can last 3 months without food.
Although people have painted sharks as man eating monsters, each year more people are killed by dogs, pigs, and deer than sharks.
The smallest species of shark, the Pygmy shark has a maximum length of only 11 inches.
There are more than 340 species of sharks known today.
There is one big trait that separates modern and ancient sharks and that is the protrusile jaw that gives the modern shark a more powerful bite.
Sharks have more than six and a half tons of biting force per square inch.
Embedded in shark’s skin are dermal denticles, which are similar to teeth.
The Shortfin Mafo shark is likely the fastest fish the world. It can swim at up to 60mph.
The whale shark, the biggest species of shark can be as big as a school bus.
Sharks can’t get cancer. Right now, their cartilage is being used in experiments to try and find a cancer cure.
Sharks have been on earth for over 300 million years. They were here before the dinosaurs and are still here today.
More people are killed by bee stings than by a shark attack.
Over 9 out of 10 people attacked by a shark will survive.
More men are attacked by sharks than women. It is a mystery why.
Bull sharks are the only sharks that can live in fresh and salt water. It is suspected one may have been responsible for a shark attack in a creek in New Jersey in 1916.
Shark’s bodies are denser than sea water. If they stop moving they will sink. So to stay afloat they must keep moving.
Sharks don’t actually sleep like humans. Instead, they just stay very still and look to be sleeping, when in fact they just rest.