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Having the ability to keep their warmth helps them as predators as well. Another group of sharks, known as the mackerel sharks are able to warm their blood. These mackerel sharks retain their blood by using a heat exchange system called rete mirabile. The body temperature of mackerel sharks can be up to 10 o higher than the surrounding water. [10]
Typically, basking sharks reach 7.9 m (26 ft) in length. It is usually greyish-brown, with mottled skin, with the inside of the mouth being white in colour. The caudal fin has a strong lateral keel and a crescent shape. Other common names include bone shark, elephant shark, sailfish, and sunfish.
Their teeth are fused into a beak-like structure, and they are unable to fully close their relatively small mouths. Ocean sunfish can become infested with skin parasites, so they will often invite small fish or even birds to feast on them. Sunfish will even breach the surface up to 10 ft (3.0 m) in the air, in an attempt to shake off the parasites.
Some sharks are so flexible, they can bend right around and touch their tails with their snouts. Shark skin is so rough that in the past it was used to make a type of sandpaper, called shagreen. Without their fins, sharks wouldn’t be able to stay the right way up. They’d roll over in the water. Most sharks never close their eyes.
Image credits: an1malpulse #5. Animal campaigners are calling for a ban on the public sale of fireworks after a baby red panda was thought to have died from stress related to the noise.
The sharks are used for their fins and meat. [1] [6] It is eaten fresh, smoked, dried, and salted and its skin made into leather. [6] Bycatching of oceanic whitetip sharks may be reduced by removing hooks from longliners when they are in shallow water. [36] Sharks may also be threatened by pollution.
A video showing multiple sharks swimming close to the shoreline just south of Myrtle Beach, California, has gone viral, gaining over ten million views since it was uploaded on May 16.
Many sharks can contract and dilate their pupils, like humans, something no teleost fish can do. Sharks have eyelids, but they do not blink because the surrounding water cleans their eyes. To protect their eyes some species have nictitating membranes. This membrane covers the eyes while hunting and when the shark is being attacked.