Hammerhead Shark

A group of sharks who are from the family named Sphyrnidae are called hammerhead sharks. This name is given due to

their flat and extended hammer shaped head. This shape of head is also called “cephalofoil”. The hammerhead sharks are from the genus Sphyrna and Eusphyra. In wormer waters along with continental shelves and coastlines these types of sharks are found all over the world. One of the main differences with the other sharks is they like to swim in schools. These schools are found in the Costa Rica, Hawaii and Colombia. Scientists have discovered nine species of hammerhead sharks. They are 3 ft to 20 ft long (0.9 m to 6 m) and 225 kg to 450 kg in weight. With a greenish tint they are normally light grey in color. The colors of their bellies are white. They have large hammer shaped head.

From the recent thesis it is found that this type of head structure gives them a good vision of their prey. The positions of the eyes give them 360 degree vision which is also known as binocular vision. For this they can see below and above of them all the times. The previous thought was this type of head helps them to find foods as well as smooth turning movements. Disproportionately the hammerhead sharks have small mouths and the mouths are appropriate for bottom hunting. They like to swim in schools by the day times and in a school more than hundred sharks may be found. But at the evening they become solitary hunters like the other sharks.

For hammerhead sharks reproduction occurs only once in a year and it happens normally when the male hammerhead shark bites violently the female hammerhead shark until she agrees to mate with that male shark. This fertilization system is internal.  Here the male shark transfers spam to the female through intermittent organs. When the baby sharks are born, parents do not perform any kind of help or take care to them. The baby sharks swim themselves toward the warmer water and stay with the other hammerhead sharks until they become self dependent. In the year of 2007 asexual bonnet-head shark was found, via automatic parthenogenesis their reproduction occurs. Here a female shark’s ovum combines with a polar body which forms zygote without any help from a male shark.

Now take a look to their diet system. Hammerhead sharks eat a large number of items. Squids, fishes, octopuses, crustaceans as well as other hammerhead sharks are included in these items. Normally they eat the bottom level foods, in this purpose they swim in the bottom of the ocean during hunting. During stingrays hunting they use their unique hammer shaped head as a weapon. By the head they pin down the stingrays and when the stingrays are weak, sharks eat the rays. Great hammerhead, one of the species of hammerhead sharks. These types of sharks are very dangerous, aggressive and large in sizes. They eat other hammerhead sharks and the baby sharks also from their own species. Now come to the point of relationship between hammerheads and human beings. Only the three species of the known nine species of the hammerhead sharks are dangerous to human beings. These dangerous species are smooth, scalloped and great hammerhead. The great hammerheads and the scalloped are red listed. This status is given due to the over fishing of these types of hammerheads. Fishermen catch sharks mainly for the fins and toss. After cutting fins and toss they throw the rest part of the sharks in the sea. This is throwing the extinction of sharks at risk.

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