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shark

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
member of a group of almost exclusively marine and predaceous fishes. There are about 250 species of sharks, ranging from the 2-ft (60-cm) pygmy shark to 50-ft (15-m) giants. They are found in all seas, but are most abundant in warm waters. Some may enter large rivers, and one ferocious freshwater species lives in Lake Nicaragua. Most are predatory, but the largest species, the whale shark and the basking shark , are harmless plankton eaters. Dogfish is the name for members of several families of small sharks; these should not be confused with the bony dogfishes of the mud minnow and bowfin families. See also hammerhead shark and thresher shark . Shark meat is nutritious and is used for human food. In Asian cuisines a prized gelatinous soup is made from the fins of certain species; many of the millions of sharks landed annually are taken just for the fins, and finning is now believed to threaten such species. The flesh is also sold for poultry feed, and shark oils are used in industry; …
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Full text Article Shark

From The Encyclopedia of Tourism and Recreation in Marine Environments
The great white shark (Carcharodon...
The term shark refers to members of the elasmobranch group, comprising the skates, rays and sharks. There are over 600 species of ray and skate, all of which have elongated pectoral fins fused to the sides of a flattened body. Additionally, there are around 500 identified species of shark. These…
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Full text Article shark

From Philip's Encyclopedia
The mako shark (Isurus oxyrhyncus) belongs to the...
Torpedo-shaped, cartilaginous fish found in subpolar to tropical marine waters. They have well-developed jaws, bony teeth, usually five gill slits on each side of the head, and a lobe-shaped tail with a longer top lobe. Sharks are carnivorous, and at least ten species are known to attack humans. …
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Full text Article shark

From Word Origins
The origins of the word shark are obscure. It appears to have been introduced to English in the late 1560s by members of Sir John Hawkins℉ expedition (a ballad of 1569 recorded ‘There is no proper name for [the fish] that I know, but that certain men of Captain Hawkins's doth call…
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Full text Article shark

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
member of a group of almost exclusively marine and predaceous fishes. There are about 250 species of sharks, ranging from the 2-ft (60-cm) pygmy shark to 50-ft (15-m) giants. They are found in all seas, but are most abundant in warm waters. Some may enter large rivers, and one ferocious freshwater…
| 738 words
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Full text Article sharks

From The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea
Endangered species of sharks [a] Tiger...
are elasmobranch fishes with cartilaginous skeletons. Elasmobranchs include about 368 species of selachians (true sharks) belonging to 30 families, and a further 470 species of batioids (skates and rays, including manta rays ). They range in size from the pygmy lantern shark ( Etmopterus perryi ), …
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Full text Article SHARK

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American writer Sharks have everything a scientist dreams of. They're beautiful – God, how beautiful they are! They're like an impossibly perfect set of machinery. They're as graceful as any bird. They're as mysterious as any animal on earth…. The more I learned about them, the more I knew I didn't…
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Full text Article shark

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Any member of various orders of cartilaginous fishes (class Chondrichthyes), found throughout the oceans of the world. There are about 400 known species of shark. They have tough, usually grey skin covered in denticles (small toothlike scales). A shark's streamlined body has side pectoral fins, a…
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Full text Article SHARK

From Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink
Any of a variety of voracious marine fishes under the orders Squaliformes and Selachii. The origin of the name is obscure. Feared for their legendary attacks on man (which in truth are exceptionally rare), the shark has not garnered much attention as a food fish in America, although the U.S. …
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Full text Article sharks

From The Oxford Companion to Food
include many edible species, of which the best known are treated under angel shark , dogfish , hammerhead shark , and porbeagle . This entry deals with them in a general way, briefly describing some of their characteristics. Sharks are not necessarily large; nor are they all dangerous. Some of the…
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Full text Article shark

From The Chambers Dictionary
a general name for elasmobranchs other than skates, rays, and chimeras, voracious fishes with a fusiform body, lateral gill slits, and a mouth on the under side; sometimes confined to the larger kinds, excluding the dogfishes; an extortionist; a financial swindler; an underhand or predatory dealer; …
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