Everything You Need to Know About Sharks

82 Pages·2007·20.73 MB·English

by  Dorling Kindersley

Everything
you need to
know about
SHARKS
AND OTHER
CREATURES
OF THE
DEEP
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS SHARKS AND OTHER CREATURES OF THE DEEP
LONDON, NEW YORK, MUNICH,
MELBOURNE, and DELHI
Editors Penny Smith, Ann Baggaley, Elinor
Greenwood, Elizabeth Haldane, Wendy
Horobin, Cécile Landau, Deborah Lock, Carrie
Love, Lorrie Mack, Sue Malyan, Caroline
Stamps, Steve White-Thomson, Lee Wilson
Designers Gemma Fletcher, Simon Balley,
Jess Bentall, Emma Forge, Tom Forge, Hedi
Gutt, Karen Hood, Sonia Moore, Clémence de
Moulliens, Claire Patane, Sophie Pelham, Joanna
Pocock, Laura Roberts, Rachael Smith, Sadie
Thomas, Vicky Wharton
Consultant Trevor Day
Picture Research Frances Vargo
Publishing Manager Bridget Giles
Art Director Rachael Foster
Category Publisher Mary Ling
Creative Director Jane Bull
THIS EDITION
Managing Editor Julie Ferris
Managing Art Editor Owen Peyton Jones
US Editor Margaret Parrish
Jacket Designer Laura Brim
Production Controller Erika Pepe
Production Editor Luca Frassinetti
Publisher Sarah Larter
Associate Publishing Director Liz Wheeler
Art Director Phil Ormerod
Publishing Director Jonathan Metcalf
DK Delhi
Managing Editor Alka Thakur
Editors Anita Kakar, Ritu Mishra
Consultant Art Director Shefali Upadhyay
Designers Sudakshina Basu, Arijit Ganguly,
Mahua Mandal, Ivy Roy
Production Manager Pankaj Sharma
DTP Manager Balwant Singh
DTP Designers Harish Aggarwal,
Shanker Prasad
Previously published in 2008 as
Sharks and Other Creatures of the Deep
This abridged edition published in
the United States in 2012 by DK Publishing, Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
12 13 14 15 16 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
001—186591—June/12
Copyright © 2008, 2012 Dorling Kindersley Limited
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise)
without the prior written permission of the copyright
owner and the above publisher of this book.
Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited.
A catalog record for this book is
available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-7566-9881-2
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purchased in bulk for sales promotions, premiums,
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CONTENTS
4 Water 40 Friend or food?
6 Ideal homes 42 Cleaning stations
8 Who’s who of the 44 Glow-in-the-dark
watery world
46 Surviving the deep
10 What is a fish?
48 Who’s the daddy?
12 This is not a fish… it’s
50 Danger in the water!
a mammal
52 Things that sting
14 Shark facts and stats
54 Who’s a pretty boy?
16 Shark’s skin makes waves
56 Prickly character
18 Toothless wonders
58 Coming up for air
20 Heart of darkness
60 Saved by slime
22 Now you see me…
62 Pulling the trigger!
24 Who’s not the fairest
of them all? 64 Synchronized swimming
26 Ocean homes 66 Apple of his eye
28 Fueling the nation 68 Animals at risk
30 What’s inside a shell? 70 Talking fish
32 What’s inside a fish? 72 Changing colors
34 A long way home 74 Record breakers
36 What am I? 76 High seas drifters
38 The shocking truth 78 Glossary and index
Water most
may be the
common
compound in the
universe. The Earth has 369 million
trillion gallons of the stuff, which works
person
57
out to about billion gallons for every
alive. If you filled a balloon with all the Earth’s water, it
would be about a third the diameter of the
Moon
. Some comes from
COMETS
, which have
sprinkled
their water into the
Earth’s atmosphere over billions of years.
s
e
k t h at ve
n
i r
h
t a
s l
t
s
i
t
n m
i
e l
l
i i
c
o
S n

4
“wet rocks”
Some of our water comes from beneath the
moisture
Earth’s surface, whose is released by
steam.
volcanoes as Luckily for us, the Earth is just the
Sun
right distance from the for water to be liquid. If
we were any nearer or farther, the oceans would boil or
life
freeze, and couldn’t exist. Life on Earth probably
Water baby
OCEANS
A human being is an
began in the , and all living organisms are
aquatic animal for the
water, first nine months of its life,
based on saltwater. Human beings are mostly with
when it lives in a pool
other things
of saltwater inside its
a few thrown in. We are directly
mother’s womb.
FISH
descended from , which first walked
355
on land more than million years ago.
i n the Ea
e r
v t
h
i ’
l s

t
n w
a
a
l
p t

d e
n r
a
.
l
a
m
n i
a
species o f
5
Ideal homes: sea
views guaranteed
Open Kelp
oceans forests
The open oceans are the largest habitat on the planet. The These are like tropical jungles on land, but instead of trees,
upper zones of the open sea, far from land, teem with fish and giant seaweeds grow up toward the light. Fish find a safe
other marine life of all kinds. Meanwhile, down in the depths, haven among the fronds. Marine otters wrap themselves
strange creatures roam in the darkness, waiting for dinner to in kelp then nap without drifting away. It’s a distinctly lush
come their way. environment, although chilly.
W W
hat lives in the hat lives in the
open ocean? kelp forest?
• Herrings: predatory fish • Sea urchins: the baddies of
and people love to eat these. the forest, they graze on the
• Sardines: this is where kelp, cutting it loose so it dies.
they hang out before being • Turban snails: prettier
put in a can. versions of the snails in your
• Tuna: eat the herrings and yard, but they still make holes
sardines—then they get eaten in underwater plants.
by sharks and people. • Kelp crabs: these gardeners
• Marlin: these big fish are prune out the old kelp fronds.
a popular gamefish, hunted • Bat star: eats up the debris
by humans. on the seafloor.
• Dolphins: hunt in pods • Blue rockfish: live in swarms
in the open ocean. among the kelp, gobbling up
• Sharks: live in every ocean jellyfish and plankton.
of the world. • Sea otters: these good guys
• Whales: where else could snack on sea urchins while
animals this big live? looking cool and laid-back.
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6
Sea creatures set up home in all kinds of
underwater places. Here are four of their
favorite aquatic habitats.
Cold Coral
polar seas reefs
At the top and bottom of the world are the icy waters of the The colorful coral reefs are full of cracks and crevices
Arctic and Southern oceans. Here, sea ice provides platforms where fish can hide. Corals come in all shapes and sizes.
for passing penguins or polar bears. Amazingly, these cold waters Some look like trees, others like lettuces, dinner plates,
are full of life, and in recent years scientists have discovered or fans. There are even round, crinkly corals that
hundreds of new animals. look like a human brain.
W W
hat lives in cold hat lives on a
polar seas? coral reef?
• Krill: these tiny crustaceans • Sharks: patrol the reef,
are vacuumed up in looking for their next meal.
bucketloads by whales, seals, • Sea anemones: these
and fish. pretty sea “flowers” spread
• Polar bears: can swim across out long tentacles to trap prey.
open water to find food. • Starfish: some of them
• Giant sea spiders: these gobble up the coral and
eight-legged creatures grow damage the reef.
to the size of dinner plates. • Clownfish: these
• Penguins: spend as much movie-star fish take shelter
time in the water as on the ice. among stinging anemones.
They “fly” underwater. • Fan worms: with their
• Sea cucumbers: these stony tubes, they are often
squishy creatures love the mistaken for coral.
cold, dark seabed. • Octopuses: these
• Walruses: use their tusks to soft-bodied creatures hide
haul themselves on to the ice. in gaps in the reef.
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world.
7
o f the w
a
o
h t
w
e
s ry
o ’
Wh
sea bristle worms
anemones
All
animals on

Earth fall into two
categories—those without backbones,
called invertebrates, and
those with backbones, called
vertebrates. Within these
categories there are further groups. swimming flatworms
The many and varied creatures jellyfish
in the ocean fit into
these groups.
calcareous
corals tube worms
tubular
The
invertebrates
far outnumber the
vertebrates—there could be
up to 15 million species.
There are 33 major groups
but here are some of the
best-known ones.
SPONGES CNIDARIANS WORMS
Invertebrates...
8