Mondo Knows Facts
Sharks have cartilage instead of bone
Their skeletons are lighter and more flexible than bone would be Cartilage gives sharks a pliant frame, and the jaw is strengthened by mineral deposits where bite force matters. They replace teeth continually, with rows of replacements waiting behind the front ones. Sharks have electroreceptors that detect the faint fields of prey. It sits in Mondo's animals collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
A giraffe neck has seven bones, like yoursEach vertebra is simply stretched to about 25 centimetresMany bird bones are hollow and struttedInternal braces keep them stiff while saving weight for flightGreenland sharks live for centuriesRadiocarbon dating of eye tissue suggests ages beyond 270 yearsSharks are older than treesSharks have been around for roughly 450 million years, well before the first trees.Goblin sharks shoot their jaws outward to catch deep-sea preyElastic ligaments catapult goblin shark jaws forward at high speed.The tuatara has a third eye on its headThe parietal eye has a lens and retina but only senses light levels
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Tags: sharks, skeleton, senses
Sharks have cartilage instead of bone: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Their skeletons are lighter and more flexible than bone would be. The figure is taken from NOAA Fisheries, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.