Adaptation! Text Box: There are many adaptations that the Carcharodon carcharias have developed to make it the ultimate predator that it is today. Some major adaptations are within the fins it possesses to be so quick through the water. Each fin has a different job to do while the Great White is swimming. As seen in the image above, the dorsal and pectoral fins are used to keep the shark stable, level, and on course. The caudal fin is the back fin that propels the Great White forward. The last two fins, the second dorsal fin, and the anal fin, are used to help improve the water flow while swimming. This ensures that the Great White Shark will have a smooth ride while zooming through the water. This smooth ride in turn, will make the Great White potentially faster (Green, 2005)! Text Box: Pectoral Fin Text Box: 1st Dorsal Fin Text Box: Caudal Fin Text Box: Anal Fin Text Box: 2nd Dorsal Fin

Photo by Linda Reese
Text Box: Another mean of adaptation that the Carcharodon carcharias have developed to better itself is its lethal set of teeth. These teeth are brilliantly engineered so that the Great White can increase its ease of catching, and digesting prey. Each tooth on the top side of the jaw are specially equipped with many tiny serrations to shred and mince the flesh of its prey. Though the top teeth do most of the work when tearing apart prey, the teeth on the bottom jaw have an equally important job to do. The bottom teeth are in charge of holding the prey down so the top teeth can do what they do best; dismantle a prey item as fast as possible (Green, 2005). Text Box: The last and most amazing adaptation that the Great White Shark has developed, is that it is able to detect electric fields radiating from prey items. If you look closely at the image above, you can see small black dots on the snout of the shark called the ampullae of Lorenzini. If you look at the image below, you can see how the different receptors are positioned throughout the head. These structures are special structures that detect electrical discharges as small as .005 µv (micro volts). When an organism is in the same area as a Great White, their skin and the water send out an electrical impulse that will travel to a shark’s ampullae of Lorenzini to be processed. This is unusual way of detecting prey and is one of the main reasons that sharks are so incredibly fast and accurate when attacking its prey (Green, 2005).
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