Archive for August, 2009
Bony fish have a swim bladder, a gas filled sac. The swim bladder originates as part of the belly. The swim bladder aids in creating an equilibrium with what is going on inside the fish and the surrounding water.
Some fish have a bladder that is part of the respiratory system. It even creates a drumming [...]
In order to breathe sharks have to keep moving. They have to engulf water to extract the oxygen in the water and then the rest of the water filters out of their gills. If the water current is very strong they can stay still.
Do you have another great question? Check out www.beachchairscientist.com and enter [...]
People often wear shark’s teeth around their neck. But, what is the significance and how do they get them? As the internet research states a sharks tooth symbolizes virility. I am not going to get any further into that aspect of the question. To each his or her own.
Here is some information on the rest [...]
Sharks really do have a sixth sense.
It is the electrosensory organ that we spoke of with the hammerhead sharks. The electrosensory organ is called the ampullae of Lorenzini. Sounds intimidating, but, it is really just a funky jelly filled canal that starts near the nose and helps them find food under the sand and figure [...]
It really feels like a phenomenon – especially when Poets.org is also celebrating Shark Week!
Here is a good one from the site by Isaac McLellan (poem “The Bluefish“):
The weaker tenants of the main
Flee from their rage in vain,
The vast menhaden multitudes
They massacre o’er the flood;
With lashing tail, with snapping teeth
They stain the tides with blood.
Do [...]
The hammerhead shark has evolved the interesting looking skull cap to accommodate its extra collection electrosensory organs. All sharks do have these electrosensory organs, but, the hammerhead has a bit more than the average shark species. The electrosensory organ are useful for traveling far distances in the open ocean. It is like a internal GPS [...]
In honor of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel I decided to post a different shark fact each week.
Today…What is the fastest shark species?
The mako shark is the fastest shark. It can get up to 20 miles per hour (or faster when being chased by an enemy). The mako shark can naturally move as fast [...]
