Worksheet: Sharks

Foundation Phase Activity

Grade 2-3 Sheet
Learning area: Natural Sciences
LO1 Scientific investigation AS2 AS3

Activity 1: Comparing shark teeth

Look at the pictures of shark teeth

below. Match the teeth to the
shark pictures. Draw the picture
of the tooth next to each shark in
the space provided. Why do you
think these teeth are so different
from each other?

1. Mako shark Diagram of tooth

2. Hammer head shark

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 Diagram of tooth
3. Blue shark

4. Great white shark

5. Sand tiger shark

Activity 2: Research the Megalodon

Megalodon was an ancient, now extinct, shark. It was the biggest shark to
cruise the seas millions of years ago. Megalodon was about 13 to 20
metres long and weighed 48 000 kilograms. It was at least two or three
times longer than the modern Great White Shark!

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 The word megalodon means “giant
tooth”. Scientists think Megalodon’s teeth
were similar to the Great White Shark.
Since the teeth of Megalodon and Great
Whites are very similar, scientists have
researched how the Great White lives in
order to work out how Megalodon lived
many, many years ago.

Did you know that shark bones are made of cartilage and do not generally
fossilize? As a result, the main proof we have of extinct shark species’ is
their teeth, which fossilize relatively easily.

Questions:

1. Find out as much as possible about Megalodon. Find out when it lived,
what it ate, and how it hunted.

2. Draw a labelled diagram showing the different parts of its body. Make
a poster showing what you found out about Megalodon.

3. How do the teeth of other sharks compare to that of the Megalodon?

4. Why do you think the Megalodon shark no longer swims in our seas?

5. What do you understand about the word “extinction”?

When you visit the Fossil Park, be sure to look out for the tooth from
a Megalodon!

Activity 3: Shark puzzle: Put it together

Colour in the picture of the different sharks. Cut the pieces of the pictures
on the dotted lines. After you have cut out the pieces, put them back
together again. You may want to glue your shark puzzle onto another sheet
of paper.

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 Teacher notes
Activity 1: Comparing shark teeth
Learners are to study the shark teeth and match them to the specific
shark shown in the pictures below.

1. Mako shark Diagram of tooth

2. Hammer

3. Blue shark

4. Great white shark

5. Sand tiger

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 Activity 2: Research the Megalodon
Notes from EnchantedLearning.com, to assist learners with their research
on the Megalodon.

MEGALODON SHARK (meaning “Giant Tooth”)

Megalodon (Carcharodon megalodon) was an extinct meat-eating shark,

that lived between 25 -1.6 million years ago during the Miocene and
Pliocene epochs.

Megalodon may have been 15 or 31m long, at least two or three times
as long as the Great White Shark, but this is only an estimate made from
many fossilized teeth and a few fossilized vertebrae that have been found.
These giant teeth are the size of a person’s hand!

No other parts of this ancient shark have been found, so we can only guess
what it looked like. Since Megalodon’s teeth are very similar to the teeth of
the Great White Shark (but bigger), it is thought that Megalodon may have
looked like a huge version of the Great White Shark.

Teeth: Megalodon’s teeth were up to 17cm long. Like most sharks, its
teeth were probably located in rows, which rotated into use, as they were
needed. Most sharks have about five rows of teeth at any time. The front
set does most of the work. The first two rows are used for obtaining prey;
the other rows rotate into place, as they are needed. As teeth are lost,
broken, or worn down, new teeth replace them. Megalodon may have had
hundreds of teeth at one time. They did not chew their food as we do, but
gulped it down whole in very large chunks.

Diet: Megalodon’s diet probably consisted mostly of whales.

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 Shark fossils are rare because sharks have no bones but only cartilage,
which does not fossilize well. Fossilized shark teeth are very hard and fos-
silize well. Fossilized Megalodon teeth have been found in Europe, India,
and in areas around Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, North and
South America, and Africa.

Questions:
1. Use rubric to assess the poster.
2. The teeth are much smaller and some have a different shape.
3. It is extinct
4. Extinction of an animal or plant species happens when there are no
more individuals of that species alive anywhere in the world. The entire
species dies out.

Activity 3: Shark Puzzle

Get learners to colour in the picture of the different sharks before they cut
the pieces on the dotted lines.

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