A tale of two fins 

The thing that most likely pops into your head when you read the word ‘shark’, is probably a bloody ocean scene from Jaws. Whether it is cinemized, televised, and even in print, sharks are bound to the ‘relentless predator’ stigma. We have all felt dubious, evoked fear when going into the ocean but where does it come from? Why fear these majestic creatures when, in fact, they are one of the most life impacting species. 

Sharks are actually considered one of the most captivating organisms in the ocean. This is due to their withstanding history in our waters. Many think it was dinosaurs that dominated the Earth but as it turns out, sharks have actually existed three times longer than have dinosaurs;  placing a 450 million year mark on the marine ecosystem.  Sharks, surviving all five mass extinctions, have developed beyond evolutionary traits in their cartilage, their buoyancy, their resistance to toxic metals and their DNA. 

A shark’s skeleton is composed differently from humans because they belong to a class of Chondrichthyan, species of cartilaginous fish. The skeleton of a shark consists of cartilage, which makes up our ears and nose rather than bones. With buoyancy, sharks are one of the only species of fish that don’t require the use of a swim bladder to maintain buoyancy, but instead they use their fatty livers. In addition, sharks have a resilient metabolism considering the fact that they can ingest large amounts of metals – that would otherwise harm and/ or kill other species-  and remain unharmed. Even though the traits sharks posses seem unfathomable, recent studies  from Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) provide information on a new trait altogether and that is sharks have 50% more DNA than humans. With these findings, scientists as well as the medical community can gain insight on why sharks are one of the only species unable to develop any cancerous cells.

With these important factors, we gain something to learn from sharks and that is, we can study their DNA and growth- evolutionary mechanism to further enhance our scientific and our medical aspect of education.

Who knows, maybe in the future the word ‘shark’ will dom the term of a healer instead of  bloodcurdling. Assembling all these characteristics why fear them?

Sebastian Fernandez-Cornejo and Stephanie Alexandra Ortiz