Sharks

SHARKS SEYMOUR SIM;O.N Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/sharks00seym_f56 SHARKS SEYMOUR SIMON SCHOLASTIC INC. New York Toronto London Auckland Sydney it never be You're at the ocean, fails. a shark. They sing swimming in the surf, and ominous music and then lunge at someone pretends to you. People have always made up myths and legends about creatures they find mysterious and terrifying. Sensationalized books, television shows, and movies strengthen the truth is myth that sharks are always that there are only about a on the lookout to attack people. The dozen shark attacks year (about 100 worldwide), and most victims live to have a better chance of being hit Sharks have killed fewer people than are killed shark in in in tell the United States each their stories. In fact, by lightning than of being attacked by you a shark. the United States in the past one hundred years automobile accidents over the world counts people as part of When you know in its a single holiday weekend. And no regular dinner menu. the truth about sharks, you'll begin to see nating creatures they are, instead of the monsters of myth. them as the fasci- Sharks are class of fish the fish, known Greek words Like all fish, but they are very different from most as and ichthyus, made fish don't Two gills like fish, are like yours, an upper fish. sharks have no other most in your fish, ears. but they have five to seven pairs of this Caribbean reef shark. and lower eyelid. The third eyelid like a balloon inside a from sinking because there is oil cause they keep swimming. If is transparent. it. Sharks also lack the swim bladder that keeps most bony is which means have eyelids, but some kinds of sharks have three of them for each covers the entire eye and protects bladder to a of cartilage, a tough, white, flexible material, just openings instead of the usual one, as you can see on Most It cartilage, end of your nose and Sharks breathe through eye. which means sharks have backbones, but unlike other bones. Their skeletons are gill They belong Chondrichthyes (kon-DRlK-thees). The name comes from chondros, like the stuff at the fish. fish's body that keeps it fish afloat. buoyant. Sharks keep in their livers that acts like a float, a shark stops swimming, its A swim and also be- weight pulls it down to the bottom. Scientists calculate that sharks cruise at about one to three miles per hour. hour. A few kinds can suddenly speed through the water at up to 60 miles per Most people think sharks, erful of jaws and teeth and with good reason. Many jaws and rows of sharp teeth. when they think of sharks d