Shark Facts get a bad rep in popular culture as ruthless, blood-soaked sea monsters, but there’s so much more to these unique creatures than sharp teeth and gills. Sharks can evoke feelings of fear, awe, curiosity and respect, especially since most shark attacks on humans are mistaken or defensive in nature.

Shark Facts

A shark’s body is made entirely of cartilage (not bone), which is why they can move so quickly and require little energy to swim. They are in the scientific class Chondrichthyes, meaning “cartilaginous fishes.”

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Unlike bony fish like cod or salmon, shark teeth are not anchored in their jaws, and they can lose their teeth at a rate of one every week. This allows sharks to eat faster and more often, which is why they are the number one predator of marine plants and animals.

Sharks use their sense of taste, touch and vision to hunt and hide from prey. But they also have an extra sense, electroreception. This is an ability to detect tiny electrical fields from muscle contractions in their prey. Sharks have an electrosensitive organ in their upper snout that can even detect a prey’s heartbeat.

Sharks can live as long as a human and, in some species, can grow to be 100 feet long. These sea dwellers have been around for 450 million years, and have evolved to be one of the most adaptable and successful fish in the world.