The Smoothest Sharks in the Library

Kayla Martin-Gant
Training Coordinator

Ah, sharks. Whether you’re one of the unlucky millions who was instantly traumatized once the credits of Jaws began to roll or a beleaguered parent on their hundredth unwilling listen to a bop about a baby shark (do do do-do-do-do~), these sea-dwellers have been striking terror and awe into our hearts for generations. 

We know them. We love them. We love to fear them. We can’t get enough of them, which is why we have a whole week of television & media programming spanning multiple channels dedicated to them. 

There’s something that many people still don’t seem to realize, though.

Sharks? Are really, really weird. And cool! But…weird.

Allow me to elaborate with eight very cool and weird shark facts from a variety of sources, including The Best Book of Sharks by Claire Llewllyn, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NatGeo: 

1. They’re boneless! Though they can fossilize, sharks have cartilage in place of bone, which means that structurally, they’re what your grandma would call “gristle.”
2. Their skin is like sandpaper*. This is due to their skin being made of placoid cells, which are tiny, teeth-like structures that help reduce friction in the water.
   
   

   

   What smooth shark connoisseur Branson Reese's critiques for 
   The Best Book of Sharks would look like, probably.

   
   
3. They’re the trees of the ocean. This admittedly flimsy analogy is true in two ways, the first being that sharks are old. Like, possibly over 450 million years old. Also, scientists can figure out the age of a shark (or a shark fossil) by counting the rings on their vertebrae, much like how we age trees.
4. Different species of shark often have wildly different dental structures. Some, like great white sharks, have 7 rows of them—that’s about 300 teeth, just so you know. Others, like bull sharks, have 50 rows of teeth (I don’t know how many teeth that is, exactly, other than that it is too many).
5. Sharks lose teeth during every meal. Not only do they have hundreds, sometimes thousands of teeth, but they lose them constantly—up to 300 per day in some cases.
6. They don’t actually want to eat you. For real! Sharks would much rather munch on other fish and marine animals, and they don’t often attack humans unprovoked. Moreover, the areas with the highest rates of shark attacks are, of course, areas like Hawaii, Australia, and other highly trafficked coastal areas that are likely to have more sharks to begin with.
7. Many species are endangered. Jaws was a great movie, but it caused a huge increase in fear among the general populace. This has led to illegal hunting, overfishing, and other human activities that have drastically decreased certain shark populations, like that of the great white shark, which is on the IUCN Red List. “Shark infested waters?” Seriously? They live there!
8. They’re probably better at meditating than you are. Sharks can go into a trance called tonic mobility when they’re flipped onto their backs, which is why you often see them in this position when they’re being tended to by scientists.

Want some more sweet, sweet shark content? Look on Discovery’s website for special Shark Week posts, including 5 Ways Sharks Make Your Life Better and incredible photos from Shark Lockdown, and be sure to check out the books, movies, or digital resources from your local library! 

*This fact has been vehemently and hilariously disputed by Branson Reese. If you haven’t seen the utterly farcical Smooth Shark Twitter Debate of years past, you’re missing out.