What's the Matter With Kids Today? Eating habits of Juvenile Great Whites Revealed
As a kid I had awful table manners: elbows on the table, chewing with my mouth open, and even the occasional half-chewed broccoli stuffed into my napkin. I probably should've gone to etiquette school, but a new study from researchers at the University of New South Wales has discovered that I was not the only kid with undeveloped eating habits.
By constructing three dimensional models of Great White shark jaws, the scientists were able to discover that unlike popular belief, these adolescent sharks lack the infamous jaw power of their more mature relatives. According to an article published by the BBC, researchers used CT scans of the jaws to show the mineralized cartilage that makes adult Great White jaws so strong actually takes years to form; and as a result, the jaws of young sharks can be easily damaged by chewing on tough flesh or even the bone of their prey.
The study of the jaw morphology of adolescent Great Whites was spurred on in part by previous findings that identified “softer flesh” as the primary element of their diet. “It's hard to believe,” explains researcher Toni Ferrara in the BBC article, “but at this size Great White sharks are basically just awkward teenagers.”
Just add braces, a few voice cracks, tighty whities and these young sharks are basically me in high school.
You can read the full artiicle at the BBC Earth News Page
