Paul Mason - Worlds Weirdest Sharks

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Original edition copyright 2017 by Hungry Tomato Ltd.

Copyright 2018 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Mason, Paul, 1967- author.

Title: Worlds weirdest sharks / Paul Mason.

Description: Minneapolis : Hungry Tomato, [2018] | Series: Wild world of sharks | Audience: Age 8-12. | Audience: Grade to | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017026118| ISBN 9781512459760 (lb) | ISBN 9781512498783 (ebk pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: SharksJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC QL638.9 .M293 2018 | DDC 597.3/3dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017026118

Manufactured in the United States of America

1-43035-27704-8/3/2017

Minneapolis

by Paul Mason

Contents

There are around different species of sharks. Between them, they can hunt almost everywhere. If an ocean contains prey, it will also have sharks hunting in it.

This strange-looking shark is called Stethacanthus . It lived during the Carboniferous Period, to million years ago.

Only males had the strange, anvil-shaped dorsal fin . It may have been a way to attract females, but no one is really sure.

Stethacanthus may have grown up to feet (1.8 m) long, about the size of a whitetip reef shark.

Sharks : Amazing Adapters

Stethacanthus hunted in shallow coastal waters and ate fish and crustaceans.

The great white shark is the most feared shark in the oceanbut its extinct cousin Megalodon was roughly three times as long.

Ancient Predators

Sharks have been on Earth for a long timea really long time. The ancestors of todays sharks appeared about 450 million years ago. Compare this with humans. Homo sapiens, modern humans, first appeared less than 200,000 years ago. Sharks first spread through the worlds oceans during the Carboniferous Period, so sharks ruled the oceans even before dinosaurs ruled Earth.

A Shark for Every Ocean

Over their long history, sharks have adapted to life in almost every ocean. These adaptations have given rise to some pretty weird creatures. Youre about to meet some of the weirdest sharks of all.

Great white shark

Megalodon

Megalodon tooth

Great white tooth