Sharks
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107 free Sharks trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
120 free shark trivia questions with answers. Dive into the depths of ocean knowledge with our comprehensive shark trivia quiz! Test your understanding of these magnificent predators, from their hunting abilities to their evolutionary history. Can you answer all 107 questions correctly and prove you're a true shark expert?
30 of 107 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which sensory organs let sharks detect the weak electric fields given off by other animals?
Ampullae of Lorenzini
Ampullae of Lorenzini open as small dark pores around the snout and lead to jelly-filled canals that pick up the faint electricity of a prey animal's muscles, even when it lies buried.
Q 02Roughly how long do scientists estimate a Greenland shark can live?
About 400 years
About 400 years: carbon-dating proteins in the eye lens put one five-metre female at 272 to 512 years old, so even the low figure makes the Greenland shark the longest-lived animal with a backbone.
Q 03What is the primary material that makes up a shark's skeleton?
Cartilage
Cartilage, the same gristly tissue as the tip of a human nose, is about half as dense as bone, so a shark's skeleton is light and helps keep it from sinking.
Q 04What term describes sharks that lay eggs?
Oviparous
Oviparous sharks lay their eggs in tough protective cases and then leave them; the embryo lives on its yolk and hatches with no parental care at all.
Q 05What is a baby shark called?
Pup
Pup is the name for a young shark, whether it hatches from a leathery egg case or is born live, as the young of many species are after hatching inside the mother.
Q 06What is the primary threat to most shark populations worldwide?
Overfishing
Overfishing, driven by demand for shark fins and meat, is identified as the biggest threat to shark populations, often exacerbated by their slow reproductive rates.
Q 07Young lemon sharks spend their first years sheltering in which habitat?
Mangrove shallows
Mangrove shallows serve as the lemon shark's nursery: females return there to give birth, and the young stay for several years, sheltered from larger predators.
Q 08What is the name for the small, tooth-like scales that cover a shark's skin?
Placoid scales
Shark skin is covered in placoid scales, also known as dermal denticles, which give it a rough, sandpaper-like texture and help reduce drag while swimming.
Q 09Which sensory structure lets a shark feel vibrations and pressure changes in the surrounding water?
Lateral line system
The lateral line system is a row of fluid-filled canals along each flank whose hair cells register water movement, letting a shark home in on the vibrations of struggling prey.
Q 10What is the scientific name of the great white shark?
Carcharodon carcharias
Carcharodon carcharias is the great white, the only living species of its genus; despite the name, only its underside is white, while its back is grey to almost black.
Q 11How do sharks typically maintain buoyancy without a swim bladder?
A large, oil-filled liver
A large, oil-filled liver does the job: its oils are less dense than seawater, so together with a light skeleton they give the lift that a swim bladder gives bony fishes.
Q 12Which of these shark species is considered the fastest?
Shortfin Mako Shark
Shortfin mako shark: its bursts are put at around 70 km/h, over 40 mph, and anglers know it for leaping high out of the water when hooked, now and then landing in the boat.
Q 13What are the leathery egg cases of some sharks and skates commonly called?
Mermaid's purse
Q 21What do anglers call the mix of ground-up fish and blood tipped overboard to attract sharks?
Chum
Chum is bait of ground-up oily fish scattered on the water; it works well enough on sharks that some US states ban chumming close to the beach for the safety of bathers.
Q 22Which shark species gulps air at the surface and stores it in its stomach to hang motionless while hunting?
Sand tiger shark
Sand tiger shark: denser than water and lacking a swim bladder, it swallows air at the surface and holds it in its stomach, which lets it hover almost motionless as it stalks fish.
Q 23What is the trance-like state a shark enters when turned upside down?
Tonic immobility
Mermaid's purse is the beachcomber's name for the tough capsule that shelters a shark or skate embryo for months; empty ones are often found washed up on beaches.
Q 14Which fish hitches rides on sharks using a suction disc on top of its head?
Remora
Remora: its first dorsal fin has become a slatted sucker on top of the head, letting it clamp onto a shark and be carried wherever its host swims.
Q 15The basking shark's common name comes from its habit of doing what?
Feeding at the surface
Feeding at the surface with its huge mouth agape, the basking shark cruises so slowly that it seems to be lazing in the warm upper water, which is how it got its name.
Q 16What is it called when sharks continuously replace lost teeth?
Polyphyodonty
Polyphyodonty is the lifelong replacement of teeth, set after set, as in sharks and crocodiles; mammals such as humans are the main exception, with just two sets.
Q 17Which deep-sea shark is often referred to as a 'living fossil' due to its primitive, eel-like appearance?
Frilled Shark
The frilled shark, one of the most primitive sharks alive, pairs its eel-like body with some 300 needle-sharp, backward-curving teeth, thought to snag the squid and small fish it eats.
Q 18A 1992 book that fuelled sales of shark supplements popularised the myth that sharks are immune to which disease?
Cancer
Cancer: Sharks Don't Get Cancer built a market for pills of powdered shark skeleton, yet tumours, some of them malignant, have been found in sharks, and clinical trials showed the pills did nothing.
Q 19What is the function of the spiracle in some shark species?
Drawing in water to breathe
Drawing in water to breathe: the spiracle is a small opening just behind each eye that keeps water flowing to the gills even while a shark's mouth is busy with a meal.
Q 20What term describes a shark's tail fin with its longer upper lobe?
Heterocercal
Heterocercal: the backbone turns upward into the longer top lobe of the tail, as in sharks and sturgeons; a homocercal tail, by contrast, looks symmetrical.
Tonic immobility: turned on its back and held there, a shark goes limp and still, a reflex researchers use to handle sharks and sawfish safely while they tag them.
Q 24Which structure do tiger and blue sharks slide over their eyes when biting?
Nictitating membrane
Nictitating membrane: this tough third eyelid slides across the eye of a tiger or blue shark as it bites; great whites lack one and roll their eyes back instead.
Q 25Which sharks are famous for gathering in schools that can number in the hundreds?
Hammerheads
Hammerheads of the scalloped species gather in schools that can number in the hundreds, a habit that lets fishing boats take whole groups at once and has helped make it critically endangered.
Q 26Which swimwear brand marketed its 'Fastskin' racing suits as mimicking shark skin?
Speedo
Speedo: when a Harvard lab tested the fabric in 2012, its shark-inspired surface did nothing to cut drag, though real shark skin did.
Q 27What is the scientific term for a hammerhead shark's flattened head?
Cephalofoil
Cephalofoil is the term for the hammerhead's wing-like head, which gives room for extra electrosensory pores across its underside and is thought to improve the depth perception of its widely spaced eyes.
Q 28Which fin is missing in many sharks, including the dogfishes and angel sharks?
Anal fin
The anal fin is absent in the dogfishes, angel sharks and sawsharks alike, so checking for it quickly narrows down which order an unfamiliar shark belongs to.
Q 29The name 'mako' was borrowed into English from which language?
Māori
Māori gave English the word: 'mako' can mean either the shark or one of its teeth, which were prized and worn as ornaments.
Q 30What does the name megalodon literally mean?
Big tooth
Big tooth: the name joins Greek roots for 'big' and 'tooth', apt for an animal known mostly from its fossil teeth, the largest of them close to 18 centimetres long.