63 Jaw-some Shark Trivia Questions and Answer

Question: Which two sharks don’t need salt water to survive?
Answer: Bull Shark & River Shark.
Question: Do sharks cannibalize other sharks?
Answer: The great white, tiger shark, and mako shark will sometimes eat smaller shark species in addition to their normal diet of tuna, seals, sea lions, and dolphins. Rays are closely related to sharks, yet they are the favorite meal of hammerhead sharks.
Question: What is the slowest shark?
Answer: The Greenland shark is the slowest shark for its size. They move at 0.34m/s (less than 1 mph) and will exhibit short bursts of speed, reaching 0.7m/s (1.6mph) when they are chasing prey.
Question: What’s the smallest species of shark?
Answer: A rarely seen deepwater dogfish shark called the dwarf lantern shark (etmopterus perryi). It’s found in the Caribbean Sea and grows to a maximum length of no larger than 7.8 inches.
Question: How many sharks do human beings kill per year?
Answer: Approximately 100 million sharks are killed every year for things like shark fin soup in parts of Asia, medicine, pet supplements, cosmetics, etc. In Victoria, Australia, shark flesh is the most popular fish used in fish and chip shops.
Question: What is the maximum range of vision that the hammerhead shark can have?
Answer: 360 degrees.
Question: What’s the largest shark species?
Answer: The whale shark is the largest shark, and also the largest fish. Adult whale sharks can grow to over 66 feet. Only whales are larger than whale sharks.

Question: How do sharks stay afloat?
Answer: Unlike other fish that have gas-filled swim bladders, sharks have huge oil-filled livers instead. This oil is known as shark liver oil or squalene and gives the shark some buoyancy. Additional buoyancy is supplied by the dynamic lift from the shark’s fins as it swims.
Question: Approximately how long have sharks existed on Earth?
Answer: 350 million years.
Question: Which part of the body helps the bull shark survive in freshwater?
Answer: Kidneys.
Question: What is a group of sharks called?
Answer: A Shoal.
Question: What are some of the most endangered shark species?
Answer: The pondicherry shark, basking shark, scalloped hammerhead, the large sawfish, and the common sawfish are just a few of the most endangered sharks today. The snouts of the sawfish get them easily entangled in fishing nets.
Question: After eating a sea lion or a seal, how long can a white shark live without needing another big meal?
Answer: One month.
Question: The popular song “Baby Shark” originated from which country in 2016?
Answer: South Korea.
Question: What is the (assumed to be) smallest shark? (Hint: What do you use to see in the dark?)
Answer: Dwarf Lantern Shark.
Question: Where did people worship the sharks and have 9 shark gods in their culture?
Answer: Hawaii.
Question: What is the name of the gray great white shark that leads the Fish-Friendly Sharks support group in the 2003 animated movie “Finding Nemo”?
Answer: Bruce.
Question: What is a pup?
Answer: A baby shark.
Question: Who is the director of the 1975 thriller movie “Jaws” about a man-eating white shark?
Answer: Steven Spielberg.
Question: How do sharks attack prey?
Answer: The majority of sharks are filter feeders or feed on small fish and crustaceans on the seabed. The ambush predators like the aggressive tiger, bull and great white sharks tend to swim close to the water surface. They hunt mostly at dawn or dusk, in poor light since their bright colored bellies will make them harder to be spotted by fish swimming underneath them.

Question: The uniquely shaped head of the hammerhead shark is specially designed for what purpose?
Answer: To find food.
Question: What’s the name for sharks that live in the deepest parts of the ocean?
Answer: Benthic sharks. The Angel Shark, Wobbegong and Zebra Horn Shark all have been found in the deepest parts of the ocean.
Question: Which part of the body helps sharks to float on water?
Answer: Liver.
Question: Sharks are the sister group or close relatives to which other ocean animal?
Answer: Rays.
Question: Is a shark a mammal?
Answer: Sharks are not mammals but a species of fish.
Question: How long can tiger sharks live?
Answer: Up to 50 years.
Question: For how long can a female shark be pregnant?
Answer: Up to 2 years.
Question: Which shark has been found in the deepest water? (Can be found at depths up to 8,920 feet)!
Answer: The Portuguese Shark.
Question: What is the favorite food of the hammerhead shark?
Answer: Stingray.
Question: Which species of shark is the largest fish in the world?
Answer: Whale shark.

Question: Besides sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing, what can sharks also sense?
Answer: Electricity.
Question: What are the shark attack “hotspots” worldwide?
Answer: Shark attacks can occur anywhere around the globe, and from 1580 to 2010, there were 2,320 recorded shark attack incidents worldwide. More recent records taken over a ten-year period from 2007 to 2016 show the world’s top 5 shark attack hotspots as follows; Florida (244), Australia (139), Hawaii (65), South Africa (41), and South Carolina (39).
Question: How many species of shark are there?
Answer: The actual figure is still increasing, but there are over 440 species of sharks today. New species of sharks, skates, or rays are still being identified almost every other week. Sharks belong to the superorder Selachimorpha.
Question: How does a shark’s skin improve its swimming speed?
Answer: Just like other fish, shark skin is covered with scales, but the scales are made from hard, bony tissue called dentine. The scales look like tiny teeth, and each one creates a small vortex on its trailing edge as the shark swims through water, greatly reducing drag.
Question: What is the scariest-looking shark?
Answer: The Goblin Shark.

Question: Where do benthic sharks spend most of their time?
Answer: On the floor of the ocean.
Question: What is the fastest species of sharks, which can shoot through the water at a speed of up to 100 kilometers per hour?
Answer: Shortfin mako shark.
Question: How do you calculate the age of a shark?
Answer: Calculating the age of a shark is difficult and imprecise. Researchers have used different methods to arrive at figures that were mere estimates at best. Some of these methods include establishing size: age ratio, counting the rings on the otolith, counting vertebrae rings, etc. In the case of vertebrae rings, for instance, it was later discovered that the rate at which new rings form on the shark vertebrae slows down as the shark matures, meaning this method is no longer reliable.
Question: How long have sharks been alive on Earth?
Answer: 409 million years.
Question: How powerful are shark jaws?
Answer: An adult bull shark can bite with a force of up to 6,000 N (1,350 psi). A grown great white can exert over 18,000 N (4,000 psi) of force with a single bite. That’s about twice the force of the largest alligators, which currently hold the record for the strongest bite of land animals.
Question: How do sharks communicate with each other?
Answer: Using physical action.
Question: What is the life expectancy for sharks?
Answer: Most will live for between 20 and 30 years with a few exceptions. The whale shark is believed to live up to 100 years and the Greenland shark about 400 years.
Question: Can sharks hear?
Answer: Yes. You won’t see an ear on the outside, but they have a small opening on either side of their heads that leads to an inner ear. Their hearing is tuned to a lower frequency than humans, and it’s so acute that they can hear fish struggling for miles around them.
Question: Sharks do not live in which ocean?
Answer: Sharks can be found in all oceans.
Question: Are there any sharks that glow in the dark?
Answer: Yes. This property is called bioluminescence and is primarily used to lure prey. Species like the lantern sharks and the cookie-cutter shark exhibit it. The cookie-cutter shark is the brightest. The photophores are on its entire stomach region.

Question: Which kind of shark is most likely to be found in a large group? (Hint: Think tools).
Answer: Hammerhead Shark.
Question: What cleaning compound can be found in shark teeth? (Dentists would approve.)
Answer: Fluoride.
Question: How many teeth will a shark grow in its lifetime?
Answer: Sharks have “disposable” teeth. Their teeth are attached to the skin rather than the jaw and are constantly being replaced. A great white, for instance, can change about 50,000 teeth in its lifetime. New teeth come from the back of the mouth to replace old ones like a moving factory production line or airport conveyor belt.
Question: What is the most poisonous shark?
Answer: The flesh of the Greenland shark is toxic when fresh due to its very high concentration of urea and trimethylamine oxide (TMAO).
Question: Are sharks solitary or social animals?
Answer: Sharks are generally social, and even the solitary ones will come together to feed or breed. The scalloped hammerhead, for instance, commonly forms groups of up to 100 individuals.
Question: In which direction can the shark swim?
Answer: Only forward.
Question: What are some strange items found inside shark stomachs?
Answer: Sharks have their preferred diet, but the tiger shark is an indiscriminate feeder. Here are some of the weirdest objects found in the stomachs of tiger sharks; a rubber tire, female pajamas, a bag of potatoes, a dog, a can of Spam, coal, parts of a crocodile, shoes, and a roll of chicken wire.
Question: When were sharks first discovered?
Answer: Evidence gathered from fossilized shark scales found in Siberia and Mongolia date back 420 million years ago to the Silurian Period. The oldest shark teeth were found in Europe, and they date from the Devonian Period, about 400 million years ago.
Question: Skeletons of sharks are made of which component?
Answer: Cartilage.
Question: Is it true that sharks can smell blood from miles away?
Answer: Over 60 percent of their brain is dedicated to their olfactory lobes. Their brain can interpret stimuli in the water, letting the shark know the distance and nature of potential prey. Open-water species like the great white can sense blood at concentrations of one part per million. And they are even more stimulated by the smell of fish guts.

Question: In which part of the day does the tiger shark normally go hunting?
Answer: At night.
Question: How many human fatalities are caused by sharks each year?
Answer: Over the last decade, less than five people have been killed by sharks annually.
Question: Do sharks have bony skeletons?
Answer: Sharks do not have bony skeletons. They belong to a group of fish known as elasmobranch. Such fish have lighter, flexible cartilage in their skeleton rather than bone. Shark muscles are attached directly to the inside of their tough skin.
Question: How true is it that sharks don’t get cancer?
Answer: Sharks can get cancer, but the effect is reduced due to a compound in their cartilage that inhibits the formation of new blood cells to tumors. Starved of blood, the tumors will not grow. This compound is called an “angiogenin inhibitor.”
Question: Why do we call it a lemon shark?
Answer: It has yellow skin.
Question: Which island country in the Pacific Ocean has a shark on its 3-dollar banknote?
Answer: Cook Island
Question: Are there animals that prey on sharks?
Answer: Orca (killer whales) can attack and kill great white sharks. Also, sperm whales may occasionally kill sharks. Such attacks are rare, though, and for now, sharks maintain their spot at the top of the food chain.
Question: What is the nickname for the goblin shark, which has existed on Earth for approximately 125 million years?
Answer: Living fossil.