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While the shark is moving, water passes through the mouth and over the gills in a process known as "ram ventilation". While at rest, most sharks pump water over their gills to ensure a constant supply of oxygenated water. A small number of species have lost the ability to pump water through their gills and must swim without rest.
While the majority of sharks are solely marine, a small number of shark species have adapted to live in freshwater. The river sharks (of the genus Glyphis) live in freshwater and coastal marine environments. The bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas), can swim between salt and fresh water, and are found in tropical rivers around the world.
Lateral line – sense organ that detects movement and vibration in the surrounding water; Shark cartilage – material that a sharks' skeleton is composed of; Shark teeth; Spiracle – pumps water across gills; Clasper – the anatomical structure that male sharks use for mating; Fish anatomy – generic description of fish anatomy
It is used to determine the direction and speed of water currents as well as the vibrations produced by prey, predators, and similar species moving through the water. [15] Blue sharks' chemosensory system is made up of gustation (taste), olfaction (smell), which is a common chemical sense. Functions like intraspecific social interactions ...
Young bull sharks leave the brackish water in which they are born and move out into the sea to breed. While is theoretically possible for bull sharks to live purely in fresh water, experiments conducted on bull sharks found that they died within four years. The stomach was opened and all that was found were two small, unidentifiable fishes.
This shark was estimated to be more than 6.9 m (23 ft) long by Peter Resiley, [67] [73] and has been designated as KANGA. [72] Another great white shark was caught in Malta by Alfredo Cutajar on 16 April 1987. This shark was also estimated to be around 7.13 m (23.4 ft) long by John Abela and has been designated as MALTA.
The megamouth shark (Megachasma pelagios) is a species of deepwater shark. Rarely seen by humans, it measures around 5.2 m (17 ft) long and is the smallest of the three extant filter-feeding sharks alongside the relatively larger whale shark and basking shark .
The silky shark is typically encountered in open water. The silky shark has a cosmopolitan distribution in marine waters warmer than 23 °C (73 °F). In the Atlantic Ocean, it is found from Massachusetts (USA) to Spain in the north, and from southern Brazil to northern Angola in the south, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.