Shark Facts for Kids

Top 10 Shark Facts

What every kid should know about sharks

• 1

  Sharks were around way before dinosaurs, around 400 million years ago. (The dinosaurs appeared in the Triassic, 245 million years ago).

  

• 2Sharks are fish. Some of them are Very BIG fish. Just like other fish, they have gills (some of them have very big gills).
• 3Sharks come in a range of sizes from the 6 inch as an adult Dwarf Lanternshark to the 40+ft Whale Shark.
• 4Whereas most fish are bony, sharks have skeletons made from cartilage - like your nose. Cartilage is strong, flexible and light.
• 5Sharks keep several rows of replacement teeth. When they lose a tooth, another one moves into place.
• 6Most sharks are cold-blooded like other fish. But some sharks like the Great White are warm-blooded, like humans and other mammals - they can regulate their temperature.
• 7Baby sharks are called pups. Some sharks lay eggs. Other sharks keep their eggs inside. And yet other sharks grow baby pups inside them, more like mammals. Wow all sharks are not the same!
• 8

  Remora or sharksucker fish attach themselves to sharks and hitch a ride and eat their leftovers.

  

• 9Sharks are fish so they have tail fins which move from side to side. Unlike Whales which are mammals which have flukes which move up and down. (My 4 year old son told me this when I was trying to tell which of his toys were sharks.)
• 10Megalodon is the biggest prehistoric shark to have been discovered at 60+ feet long.

Great White Shark Facts for Kids

• 1Great white sharks can get big! That's one of the reasons they are so interesting. Some great whites have been found to grow over 20 feet or 6m long! Find out how long the room you're in is - would a great white fit in? The room I'm in at the moment is under 20 feet long, but I could fit a great white in, if I had his tail sticking out into the conservatory. (I'm not planning to try this.)
• 2The great white shark is warm-blooded, or endothermic. This means it controls its own body temperature internally rather than being fully dependent on the temperature of its surroundings. This is very unusual for a fish and not many sharks have this characteristic. You can use this fact to catch people our in guessing games like animal, mineral, vegetable. People will expect a warm-blooded creature to be a mammal.
• 3Great white sharks don't lay eggs externally, they stay inside the mother. Great white shark pups hatch inside their mother. Shark pups engage in intrauterine-cannibalism - yeah the stronger ones eat the weaker ones before they are born.
• 4Great white sharks are found in locations all round the world. Including South Africa, America, Japan, Australia and the Mediterranean. The movement patterns of great white sharks are still being studied, but some tagged great whites have covered large distances such as swimming between South Africa and Australia.
• 5The Great White Shark is registered as an endangered species. Scientists think there may be fewer great white sharks than tigers.

Famous Sharks from Kids TV and Movies

Finding Nemo, Shark Tale, Dinosaur Train

• 1
  Finding Nemo (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
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  Bruce from Finding Nemo
• 2
  Shark Tale (Widescreen Edition)
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  Lenny from Shark Tale
• 3
  Dinosaur Train: Dinosaurs Under the Sea
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  Carla from Dinosaur Train: Dinosaurs Under the Sea