Sharks Facts

Some shark species experience appetite suppression around the time they give birth, which may help prevent them from eating their own pups.

You are more likely to get attacked by a cow than a shark.

More than 90% of shark attack victims survive.

Sharks can detect fish heartbeats using electroreceptors called ampullae of Lorenzini that sense electrical fields as small as five billionths of a volt.

Helicoprion was a shark-like fish that lived 270 million years ago. It grew up to 4-8 meters long and had a bizarre spiral whorl of teeth on its lower jaw, unlike anything seen in modern animals.

Megalodon was the biggest shark that ever existed. It was larger than the average city bus and could bite down with a force between 10.8 and 18.2 tons - enough to crush a prehistoric whale's skull as easily as a grape.

Dolphins can rapidly heal from extreme injuries, such as shark bites, and regenerate their original body shape.

Sharks have been on the planet longer than trees.

The rarest shark in the Gulf of Mexico is 5 inches long, glows in the dark, and shoots clouds of luminous fluid from tiny pockets near its fins — basically a living flashbang grenade.