Great white shark

The ocean's most famous hunter

The great white shark is the biggest predatory fish in the ocean — 6 metres! It has 300 teeth, and if one falls out a new one grows. A shark can smell a drop of blood in the water 1 km away. But don't worry: sharks don't eat people — they love seals, and only bite humans by mistake.

The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is the largest predatory fish (up to 6 m, 2 tonnes), found in temperate waters of all oceans. Its 300 triangular serrated teeth sit in 5–7 rows and are replaced up to 20,000 times in a lifetime. Ampullae of Lorenzini detect the electric fields of prey muscles. It is a warm-blooded fish: body temperature 10 °C above the water, giving it speed (50 km/h). It migrates 6,000 km and dives to 1,200 m. About 10 people a year die from sharks worldwide, while humans kill 100 million sharks. Its skeleton is cartilage, not bone.

Fun facts

• A shark goes through 20,000 teeth in its life.
• Sharks appeared 200 million years before dinosaurs — they're older than trees!
• Sharks have no bones — their skeleton is cartilage, like our ears.