Discription Slide 1-8

SharkKnights Lecture Discription

How do sharks breathe, how to they move, what type of sensory organs do they have and what can be accomplished with them, how do they reproduce... ? These are some of the questions answered in this lectures. Picture shown: Oceanic whitetip shark.

SharkKnights Lecture Discription

Breathing. Picture shown: Oceanic whitetip shark.

SharkKnights Lecture Discription

Breathing happens through oxygen absorption when the water flows over the gills. It mostly flows passively through the mouth (in) and the over the gills and slits (out). Picture shown: Blacktip shark.

SharkKnights Lecture Discription

Drawing of a whale shark. The red colored structures represent the gills.

SharkKnights Lecture Discription

The way gills function among sharks is similar to bony fishes. Here as well, the oxygen carried by the water is absorbed through the gills. While the water flows around the gills, a special mechanism allows oxygen to be absorbed into the blood stream of the animal.

SharkKnights Lecture Discription

The absorption of oxygen in a white shark is equal to the majority of shark species. However, some species possess very strong gill muscles enabling them to lay on the bottom an actively pump water through their gills. White sharks are not capable of doing so.

SharkKnights Lecture Discription

Whitetip reef shark pumping water over the gills.

SharkKnights Lecture Discription

There are many studies dealing with a shark's locomotion. Generally speaking, there are two strategies of shark locomotion: they are either fast swimming and so find more food to compensate for the energy used due to the fast motion, or they swim very slowly, using less energy but due to the slow speed find less food as well.