![]() There is a shark for every occasion plankton eating giants that reach over 50 feet (20m), tiny glow-in-the-dark deep sea sharks that can fit in your hand, sharks that can live in rivers and lakes and some that can live in the icy waters of the arctic. And that’s not to mention the better-known fearsome marine predators we usually associate with these fish.ĭespite all their differences all sharks do still have some things in common which define them. They all have cartilaginous skeletons, i.e. Not bone all sharks have teeth of some description and in addition they have skin covered in modified teeth. Hammerhead shark Photo: Barry Peters / License Of course weirdness is in the eye of the beholder but we think the list below represents a pretty good selection of the most bizarre and strangest sharks on the planet. There are actually quite a few species of hammerhead shark and they vary greatly in size from around 3 ft (1m) up to nearly 20 ft (6m+). What they all have in common though is a head shaped something like a hammer! To me this is quite strange – admittedly as everybody has heard of hammerheads I think they maybe don’t seem quite as weird as they are. ![]() But they are odd, enough so that there is a Star Wars character (Mowam Nadon) inspired by this evolutionary oddity. The exact purpose of the oddly-shaped head is still a matter of debate. The generally accepted use is to provide the shark with an enhanced range of vision – nearly 360 degrees. Other theories suggest it may be used to improve manoeuvering. Of all the sharks on this list the hammerhead, and in particular the great hammerhead shark ( Sphyrna mokarran) are the only one to have a fatal attack attributed to them. ![]() There have been quite a few reported attacks by hammerheads and they certainly have the potential to be dangerous. The sawsharks consist of eight species of related sharks found in the tropics around the world. As you may have guessed their defining feature is their long, flat rostrum (snout) which is lined with teeth to somewhat resemble a large saw. This saw / snout can make up nearly a third of the sawshark’s body length, which is rarely much over 4ft (1.3m) depending on species. Sawsharks are much smaller than the similar looking sawfish, which is a type of ray and can reach over 20ft (6m) in length. ![]()
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