11 Facts About Sharks

1. There are more than 350 different types of sharks in the world.
2. A shark can smell a fish in the water from more than a mile away.
3. The chance of being killed by a shark is one in nearly 300 million.
4. Most sharks as we know them today developed about 64 million years ago during the age of the dinosaurs.
5. The film Jaws — though heavily fictionalized — was based on a real incident in 1916, where four people were killed by a shark off the coast of New Jersey.
6. Great white sharks eat 11 tons of food a year while the average human eats closer to half a ton of food each year.
7. Whale sharks are the world’s biggest fish.
8. One whale shark can give birth to 300 live shark pups in one litter.
9. Sharks have been swimming in the ocean for more than 400 million years. They predate practically everything that has a spine, including humans and dinosaurs.
10. Sharks' eyes are on the sides of their heads, so they have an amazingly wide sightline spanning nearly 360 degrees. Their panoramic view of the undersea world is inhibited only by two blind spots, one in front of the snout and the other directly behind the head.
11. The Aztecs attached strings of chili peppers to their canoes to keep sharks away, a practice that modern day scientists doubt was actually effective.