Sharks and Rays
BY: SHELDON BROOKINS
ITZEL LARA
ROBERTO RAMIREZ
CHARACTERISTICS
Are one of the most supreme predators
throughout the globe.
These two organisms are classified in class
Chondrichthyes.
There are over a 1,000 species or so of
sharks, rays, and their close relatives in class
Chondrichthyes.
Don’t look the same on the outside, but
they share a basic anatomy.
They’re all jawed fished that lack a swim
bladder and have a cartilaginous skeletons.
In the Subclass of Elasmobranchii, which
separates the sharks and rays from their
relatives, the chimaeras.
Chimaeras differ from Elasmobranches by
having a relatively large head but no
scales.
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
Sharks and Rays don’t have to feed as
much as other organisms the same size, by
saving energy.
They use less energy as they hunt, so they
have ample energy to strike when they find
their prey.
Using less energy helps make them quicker
and inconspicuous.
Sharks have a “conveyor belt” of multiple
rows of teeth that are constantly growing
and swinging into place as the older teeth
fall out.
In both sharks and rays, scales called
denticles point backwards.
The denticles trap a film of water close to
the organism’s body.
CONTINUED
Sharks and rays store urea and other chemicals in their
tissues so the water density matches the water density
outside their tissues.
Sharks have a sense of smell that detects incredibly
diluted substances, such as blood from a wounded fish.
Both sharks and rays have lateral lines (as do bony fish).
Lateral lines are lines of sensory pores along the length
of the body that detect water motion.
The lateral line allows fish to detect vibrations of an
approaching predator or, in the case of sharks and rays,
struggling prey.
CONTINUED
A few shark species re ovoviviparous, which
means that the eggs hatch and the babies
mature within the mother’s body.
The female gives birth to live young rather
than egg cases. This differs from
mammalian live birth because the process
involves eggs that hatch internally.
Because sharks reproduce later in life and in
smaller numbers than bony fish, some types
of commercial fishing may be taking them
from the ocean faster than they can breed.
The whale shark is the largest fish in the
ocean. They’re filter feeders that consume
plankton.
ELECTRORECEPTION
The ability to sense the small electrical currents on organisms that are
created by muscles and nerves.
Sharks and rays both have an organ called the Ampullae of Lorenzini.
That enables them to send electrical currents on organisms.
They use it to either find prey on the bottom of the ocean or
murky waters.
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES OF
RAYS
Literally fly through the water with their "wings".
Use their "wings” for lift and motion, which leaves their tail free,
unlike fish which need it for propulsion.
Instead their tails contain poison which they use to defend themselves.
Manta ray largest of all rays has a wing span of 26ft and just like
the largest shark it feeds on plankton