Why are sharks the most successful predators on the

planet?

Pre-intro
Introduce yourself.
Name: Alex Bouman
Why am I up here?
AND I LOVE SHARKS!!
Sharks are incredibly complex and beautiful animals which each
species have their own characteristic which makes them different
from any other animal out there. Their adaptations to the specific
character of each individual has.
However they are just portrayed into 1 stereotype, being a mindless
killing machine.
Today Im going to show you how diverse and special sharks are
digging through what the media portrays them as.
They are different from any animal out there.
Introduction
475m years sharks around
Surviving 5 mass extinctions
440 total shark species
Found everywhere in our ocean, from tropics to polar. From the
ocean to the rivers. From shallow reefs to the deep abyss. If theres
water, there are sharks.
Come in all sizes, from size of school bus to the size of your subway
sandwich.
Theres a reason why sharks are still around, maybe cause theyre
the most successful predator?? Well Ill let you decide.
Main part
Shark teeth

Just like how you can tell a lot about a person by the shoes theyre
wearing you can tell what a shark is like just by its teeth.
The different shapes of the teeth will determine the types of food it
might eat, which may relate to the sharks size.
Then explain the teeth and the size of shark
Megalodon shark
20 m long, largest predatory shark ever lived. 3x larger than great
white shark
Teeth 6 inches long

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 came about 60-100m yr ago
Extinct 2.6 million years go
Scientist arent sure how megalodons looked like as their teeth are
the only remains of them. Sharks made up of cartilage which
dissolves quickly in the ocean.
Breif talk about how they died. Due to ocean getting warmer due to
whales migrated north and the megalodon died out.

Extinction
There are other species of sharks which beat extinction, around
250m years ago there was this period known as the Great dying
where 9 out of 10 marine species that wouldve gone extinct
How did sharks overcome this?
They dove deeper
Soon after that new species came about which were adapted to live
in deep water

Portuguese Dogfish
Deepest shark, up to 3.7km underwater.
Due to living in deep water, food is scares therefore adapted to have
a low metabolism which results them in living for up to 70 years.
They are a species of sleeper sharks which are essentially scavenger
sharks which eat just about anything they can find. They have good
sense of smell and excellent in detecting the electrical field in the
water.
Lantern shark

Really cool shark.

Smallest species of shark, up to 6inch long.
Whats cool about them?
They glow! Using organs called photophores along its body, it uses
it for camouflage and a lure. When it hunts in the shallows the light
will look like light rays coming down from the surface and when its
dark the light act as a lure for smaller fish.
Epaulette shark
Have you heard the term fish cant walk?
Be warned this shark smacks every stereotype fish have.
Well youll be wrong for this shark.
They walk across the sea bed with their fins to fit into the crevices of
the reef.
And guess what. They dont just walk in the sea but on land!

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 They can survive with very little oxygen and survive high
temperatures.
They hunt on the reef and in lagoons during low tide.

Horn shark

This shark is something like a cross breed between porcupine and

shark.
Horn sharks have a single horn on its dorsal fin (fin on the top of the
shark) they use this for protection from animals trying to eat them!
Any animal trying to have horn shark for dinner is it for quite a
painful dinner.
Swell shark

If a puffer fish and a shark had a baby, youll probably make a swell
shark.
You could guess from its name
Once threated the swell shark swells up and fills its self with water.
Will expand twice its size making hard to eat.
Hammerhead shark
Instead they are like the minesweepers of the ocean
They use it to hunt, all sharks have an organ called the Ampullae of
Lorenzini found on their snout to detect the electric field in the
water
Just so you know every muscle contraction produces an electrical
impulse such as a heartbeat.
As rays and crabs are their prey that live under the sand, they can
since their electrical impulse better compared to other sharks due to
the increased Surface area of their snout.

Great White shark

The king of the ocean
Probably the most infamous species of shark.
The largest predatory shark alive, (8-9m)

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 Best eye sight of all sharks,
Peak out the water to see (only shark to do that)
They are mostly solitary, however have been to known to hunt in
groups and coordinate an attack.
Their white bottom makes them camouflage with the light
penetrating the ocean, and their dark top makes them blend into
the dark ness of the deep ocean.
When bite, bone replaces eye to protect eyes.
Wont ever need to visit the dentist, they have an infinite number
of teeth, loses around 2000 teeth in life time.
Whale shark

Largest fish alive, (20m)

Also, the big friendly giant of the ocean
Eats plankton and small schooling fish.
Thickest hide (skin) of all animals, 6inch. Practically bulletproof.
No known predators
Live up to 100 years.

Conservation
Even though sharks have been around for around 475m yrs.
After 475m yr of evolution they might get extinct due to our
tastebuds!!
Shark specifically are endangered of extinction due to our pallets,
the taste of shark fin soup. 100M sharks are killed each year for this.
Sharks are a key species in maintaining the balance and equilibrium
of the ocean ecosystem.
The rate of extinction is 1000x sped up after the industrial
revolution compared to the normal rate of extinction.
We are in the process of wiping 90% of animals off the face of the
earth.
Mankind today at this rate are stealing experiences from our future
generations our kids our grandchildren.
They wont get to find out the beauty and diversity the ocean holds,
they will only know sharks as characters from an old movie, they will
only sharks as the past.