40 Incredible Facts About Sharks

Just like dinosaurs, sharks capture the imagination of people no matter how young or old they may be. And for good reason. Sharks are some of the strangest and most wonderful creatures in the world. 

These fish can be large or small, gray or pink, docile or a bit hostile. They have been around for millions of years and have adapted to their environment in some amazing ways to hunt, swim and live.

That’s not all. From great white sharks and megalodons to goblin sharks and sharks that glow in the dark, you’ll find some new facts about sharks that you didn’t know before. You also might need a bigger boat. 

There are many different types of sharks, and they come in a range of sizes, from small to absolutely huge. The basking shark, for instance, is typically 26 feet long and weighs up to seven tons. 

Other sharks are small, like the smoothhound shark, which grow to be about 15 inches long and munch on bony fish. 

Sharks start predation before they are even close to having consciousness. Shark embryos from tiger sharks will eat one another in the womb. 

That’s because female sharks can be impregnated by multiple fathers simultaneously, creating multiple embryos from different fathers in the womb. The biggest embryo will chow down on the other embryos, leaving just one embryo from one father. It’s theorized that this cannibalism makes sure that only one father’s gene remains dominant. 

They won’t always eat the entire pack, though. Sometimes a tiger shark gives birth to two babies. 

Are sharks the predator that never sleeps? Kind of. Some sharks have to keep moving to keep water flowing over their gills so they can breathe. Their brain goes into a sort of sleep mode and their body keeps chugging along. 

Other sharks, like Caribbean reef sharks and lemon sharks will lay about on the ocean floor in what appears to be a resting period. 

Whenever a shark does rest, its eyes remain open. It’s not sleep in the traditional sense of the word.

Great white sharks travel 2,500 miles each year, swimming from the California coast to feeding grounds in the Pacific Ocean.

They can survive the long trip by using reserves of fat stored in their liver as fuel.

Unlike in humans, fatty livers in sharks are a good thing.