The Great White Shark

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The Great White Shark

Beginning with the simplest one-celled organism, an extraordinary animal rose in the murky waters entitled to a non-comparable killing-eating machine. This organism has become nature’s most genuine and most successful creature that it has remained unchanged for over 250 million years. Nature finally invented the perfect king of the sea. This animal has given the sea it’s “living” adjective; in turn, it was entitled—the “great white shark.”

The Great White Shark derived from a series of evolutionary advancements that took several billion years. It began with the derivation of the vertebrates—the Phylum

Chordata. Here, the Class Agnotha came to existence. Some features of Agnotha are the

presence of a cartilage skeleton, nine gill slits (turning into five gill slits in sharks, where the first four became the jaw), and fins. Sharks belong to the class Chondrichthyes—a more elaborated organism. Jaws derived from the first four gill slits, spiral valve, and productive fins. The fins are amongst the most important advancements made by the sharks.

Fixed rigid rods support the fins. The sharks have five different types of fins.

They have paired fins that lift the shark, as it is able to swim; paired pelvic fins, which stabilize the shark and letting it steer to reach its prey in a more effective manner; dorsal fins also further aide the shark in stabilization as well as the anal fin. For propelling, the shark uses the caudal fins. The caudal fins allow the shark to charge directly toward its prey.

The great white shark’s size is inevitably recognizable, but it was actually even

bigger, much bigger. It was called Carcharodon megalodon years ago. This creature is

still believed by some to live down in the waters, where it would be almost impossible to reach shore because of its monstrous size. It is over forty feet long and believed to be able to eat a school bus whole! Of course, the great white average length is anywhere from twelve to sixteen feet long, but they are not restricted to those limitations.

The shark’s outer “skin” is covered by something called placoid scales. These

scales are like tiny teeth and have the same structure as the shark’s teeth. They are also called dermal denticles. The placoid scales are arranged in a regular patter.

Although they do not g...

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...lifornia, they are found all over the world as long as there is an abundance of its prey.

It is not hard to think of the Great White Shark as one of the most feared animals

in the water. The release of Jaws in the 1980s gave Americans a bigger fear of this

creature. Since then, sharks overall have become overfished. Each year over 700,000

metric tons of sharks are harvested each year, the great white being one of the most

killed. Sharks play a vital role in the ecosystem. They keep the ecosystem populations

low by killing other animals to balance off nature’s reproduction. If it were not for

sharks, marine population would increase considerably. Others would eliminate available

food because only the stronger ones would survive—survival of the fittest. Sharks may

not continue to follow its planned role in nature, if humans continue killing them.

It seems that Ernest Hemmingway was right in his book The Old Man and the Sea; if we could reach the stars we would kill them too. It is a blessing miracle that they

are so far away we cannot reach it. But maybe one day….we will reach them, and kill

them in all their glory like all other animals on Earth.

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