Most powerful Underwater Predator - Great white Shark

Hey guys, when we think about dangerous animals then we never forget to include a name “Great white Shark”. Yes our Favorite Shark. This Predators is one of the  most powerful underwater Predators and oldest in history of Earth.

         Classification

Kingdom:        Animalia                                                           Phylum:       Chordata

Class:            Chondrichthyes                                                Order:         Lamniformes

Family:          Lamnidae                                                          Genus:         Carcharodon

Species:          C. carcharias

The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. The great white shark is notable for its size, with larger female individuals growing to 6.1 m in length and 1,950 kg  in weight at maturity.

However most are smaller, males measuring 3.4 to 4.0 m and females 4.6 to 4.9 m on average. According to a 2014 study the lifespan of great white sharks is estimated to be as long as 70 years or more, well above previous estimates, making it one of the longest lived cartilaginous fish currently known. According to the same study, male great white sharks take 26 years to reach sexual maturity, while the females take 33 years to be ready to produce offspring.Great white sharks can swim at speeds of over 56 km/h, and can swim to depths of 1,200 m.The great white shark has no known natural predators other than, on very rare occasion, the killer whale.

The great white shark is arguably the world's largest known extant macropredatory fish, and is one of the primary predators of marine mammals. The great white shark was one of the many amphibia originally described by Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, its first scientific name, Squalus carcharias. Later, Sir Andrew Smith gave it Carcharodon as its generic name in 1833, and also in 1873. The generic name was identified with Linnaeus' specific name and the current scientific name, Carcharodon carcharias, was finalized.

Carcharodon comes from the Ancient Greek words karcharos, which means sharp or jagged, and odous, which means tooth. he great white shark came into existence during the mid-Miocene epoch. The earliest known fossils of the great white shark are about 16 million years old. However, the phylogeny of the great white is still in dispute. The original hypothesis for the great white's origins is that it shares a common ancestor with a prehistoric shark, such as the C. megalodon. C. megalodon had teeth that were superficially not too dissimilar with those of great white sharks, but its teeth were far larger.

Although cartilaginous skeletons do not fossilize, C. megalodon is estimated to have been considerably larger than the great white shark, estimated at up to 17 m and 59,413 kg .

Similarities among the physical remains and the extreme size of both the great white and C. megalodon led many scientists to believe these sharks were closely related, and the name Carcharodon megalodon was applied to the latter. However, a new hypothesis proposes that the C. megalodon and the great white are distant relatives (albeit sharing the family Lamnidae). The great white is also more closely related to an ancient mako shark, Isurus hastalis, than to the C. megalodon, a theory that seems to be supported with the discovery of a complete set of jaws with 222 teeth and 45 vertebrae of the extinct transitional species Carcharodon hubbelli in 1988 and published on 14 November 2012. In addition, the new hypothesis assigns C. megalodon to the genus Carcharocles, which also comprises the other megatoothed sharks; Otodus obliquus is the ancient representative of the extinct Carcharocles lineage.

Great white sharks live in almost all coastal and offshore waters which have water temperature between 12 and 24 °C (54 and 75 °F), with greater concentrations in the United States (Northeast and California), South Africa, Japan, Oceania, Chile, and the Mediterranean including Sea of Marmara and Bosphorus.One of the densest known populations is found around Dyer Island, South Africa.The great white is an epipelagic fish, observed mostly in the presence of rich game, such as fur seals (Arctocephalus ssp.), sea lions, cetaceans, other sharks, and large bony fish species. In the open ocean, it has been recorded at depths as great as 1,200 m.

These findings challenge the traditional notion that the great white is a coastal species. The great white shark has a robust, large, conical snout. The upper and lower lobes on the tail fin are approximately the same size which is similar to some mackerel sharks. A great white displays countershading, by having a white underside and a grey dorsal area (sometimes in a brown or blue shade) that gives an overall mottled appearance. In great white sharks, sexual dimorphism is present, and females are generally larger than males. Male great whites on average measure 3.4 to 4.0 m long, while females at 4.6 to 4.9 m. Adults of this species weigh 522–771 kg . on average, however mature females can have an average mass of 680–1,110 kg, The largest females have been verified up to 6.1 m in length and an estimated 1,950 kg in weight, perhaps up to 2,268 kg.

The maximum size is subject to debate because some reports are rough estimations or speculations performed under questionable circumstances. Among living cartilaginous fish, only the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), the basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) and the giant manta ray (Manta birostris), in that order, average larger and heavier. These three species are generally quite docile in disposition and given to passively filter-feeding on very small organisms.This makes the great white shark the largest extant macropredatory fish.

Great white sharks are at around 1.2 m when born, and grow about 25 cm each year. Great white sharks are carnivorous and prey upon fish (e.g. tuna, rays, other sharks), cetaceans (i.e., dolphins, porpoises, whales), pinnipeds (e.g. seals, fur seals and sea lions), sea turtles, sea otters (Enhydra lutris) and seabirds. Great whites have also been known to eat objects that they are unable to digest. Juvenile white sharks predominantly prey on fish including other elasmobranchs, as their jaws are not strong enough to withstand the forces required to attack larger prey such as pinnipeds and cetaceans until they reach a length of 3 meters or more,

at which point their jaw cartilage mineralizes enough to withstand the impact of biting into larger prey species. Great white sharks were previously thought to reach sexual maturity at around 15 years of age, but are now believed to take far longer; male great white sharks reach sexual maturity at age 26, while females take 33 years to reach sexual maturity.  Maximum life span was originally believed to be more than 30 years, but a study by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution placed it at upwards of 70 years.

Examinations of vertebral growth ring count gave a maximum male age of 73 years and a maximum female age of 40 years for the specimens studied. The shark's late sexual maturity, low reproductive rate and slow growth make it vulnerable to pressures such as overfishing and environmental change.

A 2007 study from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, used CT scans of a shark's skull and computer models to measure the shark's maximum bite force. The study reveals the forces and behaviors its skull is adapted to handle and resolves competing theories about its feeding behavior. In 2008, a team of scientists led by Stephen Wroe conducted an experiment to determine the great white sharks jaw power and findings indicated that a specimen massing 3,324 kg could exert a bite force of 18,216 newtons.