Shark Tooth Guessing Game

Carcharias Taurus

Sammy our sand tiger shark looks the most ferocious, with his rows and rows of teeth – but he’s actually the shyest of our sharks, say SPA aquarists. (Sand tigers can’t close their mouths all the way.)
Sand tiger sharks can be found in almost every ocean on Earth, usually near rocky outcroppings on the coast. They eat small fish, crabs, lobster and squid, and their main predators are humans – listed as vulnerable by the IUCN, they are recovering from overfishing in some places. (They’re also hunted by large fish like barracuda and by eels and other sharks.)

DID YOU KNOW?

Sedentary, nocturnal and territorial, they are one of the few sharks whose pups are born live (after hatching inside mom’s body). They gulp air at the surface and hold it in their stomachs to help them float.

Ginglymostoma cirratum

You can spot our nurse sharks because they love to hang out on the bottom of the Outer Reef. Slow swimmers and bottom feeders, they are docile unless disturbed, although they can grow to a whopping 14 feet.
Nurse sharks are found in the Atlantic from Rhode Island to Brazil, and in the Pacific from the Gulf of California to Ecuador, especially in bays, estuaries and shallow reefs.
One of the few sharks whose pups are born live (after hatching from eggs in mom’s body), nurse sharks eat small fish, crab, octopus and other sea creatures, using their mouths like vacuums to suck prey out of crevices. They’re often found in groups of 20-30, piled up on top of each other.

DID YOU KNOW?

They can change color to match their surroundings, grow a new set of teeth every 8 days and have two nasal barbels (like fleshy whiskers) near their mouth, which help them feel around for prey on the ocean floor.

Carcharhinus melanopterus

Blacktip reef sharks can be spotted by their coloring: light belly and dark back, with a black fin tip. This helps camouflage them – when seen from below they blend with the sunny ocean surface, and when seen from above they blend with the darker ocean floor.
They’re found in tropical waters in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean Sea, gathering inshore near coral reefs. They eat small fish, crustaceans, octopus, squid, crabs and sea snakes, often leaping and spinning when chasing prey and hunting in groups.
Blacktip reef sharks give birth to live pups (after they hatch inside mom’s body) which stay in a protected nursery area for their first year. Although they share shallow waters with snorkelers and scuba divers, they’re not a threat to humans.

DID YOU KNOW?

Blacktip reef sharks are listed as near-threatened by the IUCN, as they are often caught for their fins. It takes years for shark populations to recover from overfishing.

Carcharhinus plumbeus

Sandbar sharks grow to around 8 feet, and are found in tropical and subtropical waters of the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea, although they migrate seasonally.
They eat bottom food like fish, crustaceans and mollusks, and are preyed on by humans and larger sharks. They’re rarely seen at the surface and avoid beaches, so pose little threat to humans.
Listed by the IUCN as vulnerable, sandbar sharks are still recovering from overfishing for their fins. They bear live pups which live in coastal nurseries until they grow bigger.

DID YOU KNOW?

Shark scales – called dermal denticles – are made of the same material as their teeth.

Scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) have the typical wide head of a hammerhead, but with ridges along the top. They eat fish, squid, crustaceans and especially stingrays, sometimes accumulating the stinging barbs in their mouth.

Because these hammerheads swim in schools of several hundred animals at certain times (unusual for top predators), they are easy for commercial fisheries to catch for oil, meat and skin. They’re endangered in many parts of the world, including the Baja California.

Nurse Shark!

Despite being so big, nurse sharks have small teeth. That’s because they suck up food rather than biting it.

Sand tiger shark!

You can spot a sand tiger shark tooth by the tiny barbs on either side, and the elongated shape. Sand tigers may look fierce, but that’s just because they literally can’t close their mouths all the way – they have too many teeth!

Blacktip reef shark!

Blacktip reef sharks may have sharp teeth but they are shy around humans. Instead, they use their chompers on octopus, squid and small fish.

Sandbar shark!

Saw-edged and uneven, a sandbar’s teeth help it crush bottom-food like mollusks and crustaceans.

Scalloped hammerhead shark!

These teeth, held by an aquarist, were collected from our Baja Bay habitat – the smaller is from our hammerhead sharks when they were pups just a couple of feet long, and the larger is more recent now they’ve grown!