Sharks

by Ferrari, Andrea

• ISBN13: 9781552096291
• ISBN10: 1552096297
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-02-01
• Publisher: Firefly Books Ltd

Summary

Sharks evoke a mixture of fear and fascination in most people. Portrayed in movies and books as vicious killers, sharks are, in fact, one of the most fascinating and diverse creatures in the ocean.This handy guide to all the species of sharks in the world will prove invaluable to the diver, tourist, student and naturalist. More than 120 species are covered and illustrated with 450 color photographs to provide a comprehensive look at this magnificent creature.An ideal book for anyone interested in sharks, it provides up-to-date information with clear color photographs in a handy format for use in the field or at a desk. Readers who need essential facts quickly will be pleased with the orderly presentation of information, the completeness of the entries and the accuracy of the information. The color photographs help in identifying species as well as providing a visual reference for the information presented.Sharks is an ideal guide and reference for all levels of interest from school project to professional divers.

Author Biography

Based in Italy but working around the globe, Andrea and Antonella Ferrari have been professional nature photographers for more than fifteen years. During the past decade they have devoted themselves almost exclusively to underwater photography in tropical seas. They are the authors of four books of photographs and their work has appeared in many newspapers and magazines.

Table of Contents

Foreword	8	(10)
Doug Perrine
Introduction	10	(2)
Lords of the Deep	12	(5)
Origins and Evolution	17	(7)
Sense Organs	24	(9)
My First White Shark by Valerie Taylor	33	(3)
Fins and Locomotion	36	(3)
Gills and Respiration	39	(3)
Teeth and Predation	42	(6)
Things Change by Howard Hall	48	(4)
Skin	52	(5)
Reproduction	57	(3)
Human Contacts	60	(4)
My Fear for Sharks by Marty Snyderman	64	(4)
Myths and Legends	68	(4)
Photographing Sharks by Doug Perrine	72	(6)
How to Avoid and Assist Sharks	78	(2)
More Dangerous and Sharks	80	(6)
Key to Identification	86	(2)
ENTRIES
Hexanchiformes, Squaliformes, Pristiophoriformes, Squatiniformes, Heterodontiformes	88	(18)
Orectolobiformes	106	(22)
Lamniformes	128	(16)
Carcharhiniformes	144	(50)
Rajiformes	194	(6)
Key to Identification	200	(40)
APPENDICES	240	(8)
Classification of Sharks	242	(6)
Index	248	(4)
Bibliography	252	(1)
Websites	253	(1)
Photographic Credits	254

Excerpts

Lords of the Deep A New ImageEven today the very word "shark" provokes in us obscure fears and ancestral terrors; and the same irrational sense of danger is evoked by other creatures that are entirely different, such as snakes and wolves, although usually people who react violently and fearfully at the mere mention of these creatures have never seen them in the wild, nor are they ever likely to do so. Actually, the image of these animals, which so inexplicably chills us to the depths of our being, is little more than fantasy, a figment of the imagination derived from decades of bad adventure films, cheap fiction and tall tales unconnected to everyday reality. From the 1930s and 1940s onward, truth and fantasy have overlapped inextricably; first with the discovery and subsequent documentation, usually sensationalized, of tropical shores that had thus far remained unviolated, and then with incidents arising from the Second World War. So, although it was obviously impossible for anyone to rip open a shark with a single thrust of a knife, as was done repeatedly in the cinema, it was nonetheless tragically true that many torpedoed sailors and bailed-out pilots -- who during the war had been left at the mercy of the sea, often for days on end -- had been killed by these predators while awaiting the arrival of help. It is undeniable that certain species of tropical sharks -- and also other huge predators such as the Nile and marine crocodiles -- have long represented a genuine danger to people living along river banks. What, however, is important to grasp is that such sharks, stripped of the cloak of myth and superstition in which they have been wrapped by innumerable travelers and writers, are merely fish. Often of extraordinary elegance and beauty, sometimes astonishingly evolved, in some cases capable of inflicting grave wounds with their spectacular teeth, yet, at the same time simply fish, unable to show human-type feelings such as malice or desire for revenge, instinctively prepared to flee if threatened, tending to be timid and difficult to approach, and often surprisingly delicate. Today, as is evident, it is actually sharks that have reason to fear humans, not the other way round. Similarities and DifferencesIn what way do sharks differ from other fish? Sharks and rays are cartilaginous fishes, the Chondrichthyes, of which they form the subclass Elasmobranchii, in contrast to the Osteichthyes or bony fishes. Like the latter, they extract the oxygen necessary for life from the surrounding water by a specialized structure of the gills, and they move by undulating the streamlined body using a combination of fins, either single (caudal, dorsal and anal) or paired (pectoral and pelvic). Many of them are carnivorous hunters, and they reproduce, depending on species, either by laying eggs or producing live young. The structural features that distinguish the Chondrichthyes are the gills (which in sharks open on the outside as simple slits, varying in number from five to seven, whereas in bony fishes they are always protected by a bony covering known as the operculum); the fins (stiff and laminate, similar to the wings of an airplane, without bony inner rays that characterize the Osteichthyes); the skin (which in sharks consists of a layer, of variable thickness, of derma in which are embedded innumerable enameled tooth-like placoid scales, whereas in bony fishes they generally take the form of large, flat scales); and finally and most particularly, the skeleton, which is made up mainly of strong cartilage rather than hard bone as is the case with Osteichthyes. Sharks, moreover, have no swim bladder and the majority regulate their balance in water through their highly evolved body structure and the large size of their liver, which is rich in oils. Another important distinction between the Chondrichthyes and the Osteichthyes is the general structure of the upper jaw or maxilla (as oppose