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SHARKS

Sharks

Selachimorpha

) are a type of fishwith a fullcartilaginous skeleton and a highlystreamlined body. They respire with the use of five to sevengillslits. Sharks have a covering of dermal denticlesthat protect their skin from damage and parasites and improvefluid dynamics. They have several sets of replaceable teeth.

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Sharks range insize from the smalldwarf lanternshark ,

Etmopterus perryi

, a deep sea species of only17 centimetres (7 in) in length, to thewhale shark ,

Rhincodon typus

, the largest fish,which grows to a length of approximately 12 metres (39 ft) and which feeds only on plankton,squid, and smallfish throughfilter feeding.

Skeleton

The skeleton of a shark is very different from that of bony fishandterrestrial vertebrates. Sharks and other cartilaginous fish(skates and rays) have skeletons made from cartilage,which is a flexible and dense connective tissue, but they are still considered bones. Theyfunction in the same way as human bones do. Like its relatives, rays and skates, theshark's jaw is not attached to the cranium. The jaw's surface, like its vertebrae and gill arches, is a skeletal element that needs extra support due to its heavier exposure to physical stress and its need for extra strength. It has therefore a layer of unique and tinyhexagonal plates called "tesserae", crystal blocks of calcium salts arranged as a mosaic.

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This gives these areas much of the same strength found in real and much heavier bonytissue.Generally there is only one layer of tesserae in sharks, but the jaws of large specimens,such as the bull shark , tiger shark ,andthe great white shark , have been found to be covered with two to three layers or more, depending on the body size. The jaws of a largewhite shark may even have up to five layers.

In the rostrum (snout), the cartilage can be spongy and flexible to absorb the power of impacts.The fin skeletons are elongated and supported with soft and unsegmented rays namedceratotrichia, filaments of elastic protein resembling the horny keratin in hair andfeathers.

Respiration

Like other fish, sharks extractoxygen from seawater as it passes over their gills. Shark gill slits are not covered like other fish, but are in a row behind its head. A modified slitcalled aspiracle is located just behind the eye;the spiracle assists the water intake during respiration and even plays a major role in bottom dwelling sharks, but is also reduced or missing in active pelagic sharks.

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While moving, water passes through the mouth of theshark and over the gills — this process is known as "ram ventilation". While at rest, mostsharks pump water over their gills to ensure a constant supply of oxygenated water. Asmall subset of shark species that spend their life constantly swimming, a behaviour common in pelagicsharks, have lost the ability to pump water through their gills. These species are

obligate ram ventilators

and would presumably asphyxiateif unable to stay in motion. (Obligate ram ventilation is also true of some pelagic bony fish species.)

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The respiration and circulation process begins when deoxygenated blood travels to theshark's two-chambered heart. Here the blood is pumped to the shark's gills via theventralaortaartery where it branches off intoafferent brachial arteries. Reoxygenation takes place in the gills and the reoxygenated blood flows into the efferent brachial arteries,which come together to form thedorsal aorta.The blood flows from the dorsal aorta throughout the body. The deoxygenated blood from the body then flows through the posterior cardinal veinsand enters the posterior cardinal sinuses.From there blood enters the ventricle of the heart and the cycle repeats.

Buoyancy

Unlike bony fish, sharks do not have gas-filled swim bladders for buoyancy. Instead, sharks rely on a large liver, filled with oil that containssqualene.The buoyant liver may constitute up to 30% of their body mass

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. Its effectiveness is limited, so sharks employ

dynamic lift to maintain depth and sink when they stop swimming. Sandtiger sharks arealso known to gulp air from the surface and store it in their stomachs, using the stomachas a swim bladder.Because of this, most sharks need to constantly swim in order to breathe and can't sleepvery long, if at all, or they will sink. However certain shark species, like thenurse shark ,have spiracles that force water across their gills allowing them to remain stationary at reston the ocean bottom.Some sharks, if inverted or stroked on the nose, enter a natural state of tonic immobility.Researchers have used this condition to handle sharks safely.

Osmoregulation

In contrast to bony fish, the blood and other tissue of sharks and Chondrichthyes ingeneral isisotonic to their marine environments because of the high concentration of urea and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), allowing them to be in osmotic balance with theseawater. This adaptation prevents most sharks from surviving in fresh water, and theyare therefore confined to a marineenvironment. A few exceptions to this rule exist, such as the bull shark ,which has developed a way to change its kidney function to excrete large amounts of urea.

When a shark dies the urea is broken down to ammonia by bacteria — because of this, the dead body will gradually start to smell strongly of ammonia.

Teeth

Main article:Shark teeth

Tiger shark teethThe teeth of carnivorous sharks are not attached to the jaw, but embedded in the flesh,and in many species are constantly replaced throughout the shark's life; some sharks canlose 30,000 teeth in a lifetime. All sharks have multiple rows of teeth along the edges of their upper and lower jaws. They stick out of their mouth at angles of up to thirty degrees. New teeth grow continuously in a groove just inside the mouth and move forward frominside the mouth on a "conveyor belt" formed by the skin in which they are anchored. Insome sharks rows of teeth are replaced every 8–10 days, while in other species they couldlast several months. The lower teeth are primarily used for holding prey, while the upper ones are used for cutting into it.

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The teeth range from thin, needle-like teeth for gripping fish to large, flat teeth adapted for crushing shellfish.