The Great White, Remoras and Orcas

In this post we will be talking about the famous great white shark and the great white's little helper, remora. Now, remoras look like parasites to us humans. But really, remoras are the opposites of pests, they actually eat the pests. From millions of years from evolution, the remora kind of looks upside down when they are right side up. It might be because of its suction head. Remoras latch on to sharks while they have suction cups on their head. The great whites and other sharks don't usually eat remoras. There's also this other kind of fish that cleans the shark's teeth.

Now we will talk about the shark or rather the great white shark. The great white shark is a living torpedo. No really, its like a cruise missile (the cruise missile is a very powerful weapon). Now you may think those ol' great white sharks are super bulky to catch up to a seal lion, but actually the great white shark has amazing agility. In fact they sometime leap out of the water with the prey still in its mouth.

Now you may think that no one would mess with a great white shark, but really there are two predators that will mess with the great white. The creature is called the orca, also known as killer whale, but really its a dolphin. Most people call it a whale. And people call it a killer whale. Instead they should call it a killer dolphin. Now orca whales pretty much hunt in packs, but the great white shark can dive deeper. And here's the other predator of the great white... US HUMANS! Some people like to make shark fin soup out of them. And the worst thing us humans do: we hunt them for sport. Sport! That means really getting nothing out of it. Its just killing. And there may be less sharks than they think, because no one great white shark looks the same. On the plus side we have been putting tags on them.

(Photo from deeptypeflow.blogspot.com)

(Photo from marinebio.org)

(Photo from en.wikipedia.org)

Megalodon vs. Prosqualodon

Alright, this is another prehistoric one - or more like two posts in one. A couple million years ago when our ancestors were becoming less ape-like and in fact a whole new animal form, Australopithecus --well we're talking about what was happening under water. Now you know that old great white shark, well millions of years ago about when the Australopithecus was roaming the earth, under the water was a shark called megalodon. And this enormous shark was bigger than today's great white. In fact, it was the size of a Greyhound bus. There was a rival, much smaller than it. The rival is called prosqualodon. Now it is much small than a megalodon. Alright, here we have the fight in action. Now first we have a megalodon swimming through the sea, minding its own business, but then comes a small prosqualodon. Then the ginormous megalodon attacks the prosqualodon. But the prosqualodon hunts in packs, so there are many more prosqualodons. And the other prosqualodons start biting at the megalodon's gills. Now the one prosqualodon might have been killed, but look at megalodon. He's got quite a few scars, too. And the picture may look like a dolphin, but believe me that is the prosqualodon.

(image of megalodon from en.wikipedia.org)

(image of prosqualodon from blogevolved.blogspot.com)