Shark Mania! Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

A shark is actually a fish, but they are not like other fish. They do not have bones! They have soft cartilage. The soft cartilage helps them to twist and turn their bodies. Shark skin is rough and bumpy. It offers them protection and also enables them to swim faster.

Answer: pups

Shark babies are called pups. Some pups are grown inside of their mother, while others are hatched from an egg. Lemon sharks are one of the types of sharks that give birth to live pups. The mother will go to shallow water to give birth to her pups. The pups stay close to the shallow waters until they are grown. Swell shark pups hatch from eggs.

The mother lays her eggs in a hard case, sometimes referred to as a mermaid's purse. Swell sharks lay up to five egg cases at a time. In about nine months the pups are born from the egg cases.

Answer: great white

When the great white shark grabs its prey, their eyes roll back into their head to protect their eyes. Sharks can see better than humans. Even in very deep and dark waters the shark can see well.

Did you know that sharks take a taste test bite of prey before they decide if they will consume it? The taste buds will tell them if the prey is fat enough to eat. If they decide its not edible, they will give it up and hunt for other prey.

Answer: True

Sharks have different kinds of teeth, and they all have perfect teeth for what they eat. Some sharks have long spiky teeth that are good for catching prey. Some have rows of flat teeth that are perfect for grinding. And some sharks have big serrated teeth that are for ripping and tearing with the jagged edges, that are much like a steak knife. Sharks have many rows of teeth. They are constantly losing and growing new teeth. Can you imagine using thousands of teeth over the course of your lifetime?

Answer: dogfish

There are well over 100 different species of dogfish, making them the second most numerous order. Their common name comes from their predatory behavior, hunting in packs to chase down prey.

Answer: wobbegong

Most sharks are hard to see because of their coloring. When looking from above they blend in with the water due to their dark backs and from below they blend in with the sky because of their white bellies. The wobbegong shark has colors just like the sea floor.

They blend in well. They also have parts on their mouth that look like seaweed. They are disguised so well that fish swim into their mouth to hide and then can't get back out.

Answer: by gulping and burping air

The sand tiger shark is a pretty cool shark. They can actually swallow or burp air to sink or float better. They swallow their prey whole and can eat just about anything. They are widely distributed in all warm seas except the Eastern Pacific. Sand tiger sharks have one of the lowest reproductive rates among sharks, giving birth to only one or two large pups every two years. Fishing takes a heavy toll on them because of the many uses of the Sharks body.

The meat is sold, the liver is used for oil, their hide is used for leather, and the fins are dried and sold within the shark fin trade.

These sharks typically weigh in at no more than 350 pounds.

Answer: immediately separate from them

I think hammerhead sharks are the most amazing. The mother hammerhead gives birth to about 20 to 40 pups at a time, and immediately separate from their pups. There are 9 separate species of hammerhead sharks, and they prefer the warm waters a long the coastlines.

They prefer to live well below the surface line. The hammerhead shark gets its name from the unique shape of their head, which is shaped like a hammer on both ends. They are great hunters because of their eyes being set so far apart. They are able to see in different directions and that enables them to see more at a time then other shark species.

In addition to the advantages they get from their eye placement, they also have many sensory organs in their head. The sensory organs allow them to feel movements and vibrations of their prey, even when they can't see them.

They have a great sense of smell, which helps them locate a variety of food including, small fish, sting rays, squid and even small sharks. These sharks typically weigh in at 500 to 1,000 pounds.

Answer: they make a sucking noise while sucking in prey

Nurse sharks are well known for the sucking noise they make as they move across the sea floor sucking in prey. They are the only sharks that make such a noise. Their diet typically consists of sea snails, crustaceans, mollusks, and small fish. They are bottom dwellers that are more active at night. Mother nurse sharks have eggs inside their uterus until they give birth.

The pregancy lasts about six months. After they give birth a female nurse shark can't produce eggs again for 18 months. They give birth to an average of 30 pups at a time, and after birth sometimes the larger and stronger pups will eat the smaller weaker pups. Nurse shark pups are 12 inches long at birth, and when they are fully mature they can reach lengths of 15 feet and can weigh up to 330 pounds. Most fish and sharks need to keep moving in order to breathe, but nurse sharks can actually remain still by laying on the sea floor against the flow of water.

They pump the water through the gills and mouth.

Answer: from their eating habits

The cookiecutter shark is a very strange shark. They get their name from the way they feed. They are actually considered a parasite, because they feed off other larger animals without actually killing them. The animal is left with a nasty scar but otherwise survives.

They only grow up to 18 to 20 inches in length and they loose several sets of teeth in their lifetime. They also are known to swallow the lost teeth on purpose. Cookiecutter sharks have very sharp pointed upper teeth that are used for latching on to the skin of larger sharks, fish, or marine animals.

They use the sharp teeth to scoop out a chunk of blubber or flesh to consume. They spend most of their time in the dark, feeding near the surface of the water at night, and in the deep water during the day.