| Summary: | [photo] Somniosus microcephalus: The Greenland shark. (5) A simple question one might ask is “what makes a fish what it is?” The common response might sound a little like this: a fish lives in water and receives oxygen by filtering it out of water through its gills, and it has fins to steady and propel it through its environment. Its body is covered by scales, skin or boney plates, its heart has two chambers, and finally, it lays eggs. All this is the vernacular scientists use to describe the fish. (6) That being said, sharks are classified in this same fish category, yet all the above scarcely could describe this animal adequately. For example, sharks don’t have skin, nor do they have scales or bone plates. Rather, they evolved to have flesh that’s ten times the strength of cowhide, and each “scale”—for lack of a better word—has a pointed end that is sharp enough to cut a man’s hand. (6) [photo] 4 | P a g e
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