Q 01/05

A cartilaginous fish has a skeleton made of the same bendy tissue as which parts of the human body?

A) Teeth and nails

B) Skull and jaw

C) Ears and nose

D) Hair and eyelashes

Answer · why

C) Ears and nose

Ears and nose tips are shaped by cartilage, the gristly tissue that forms a shark's whole skeleton. It is far lighter than bone, which helps these fis...

Q 02/05

Fossils show sharks were already swimming the seas before which of these first appeared on Earth?

A) Trees

B) Jellyfish

C) Sponges

D) Trilobites

Answer · why

A) Trees

Trees came later: sharks appear in the fossil record around 450 million years ago. They have since survived five mass extinctions, including the one t...

Q 03/05

Which slow-swimming deep-water species, thought to live for centuries, is the longest-lived vertebrate known?

A) Orange roughy

B) Greenland shark

C) Sixgill shark

D) Rougheye rockfish

Answer · why

B) Greenland shark

The Greenland shark may live for 272 years or more, longer than any other animal with a backbone. Scientists worked out the ages by radiocarbon dating...

Q 04/05

Shark skin, covered in tiny tooth-like scales, feels just like which workshop material?

A) Steel wool

B) Wire mesh

C) Pumice stone

D) Sandpaper

Answer · why

D) Sandpaper

Sandpaper is the usual comparison, because the scales, known as dermal denticles, are built like miniature teeth. They all point toward the tail, whic...

Q 05/05

Which gentle, spotted giant that feeds mostly on plankton is the largest fish alive today?

A) Whale shark

B) Ocean sunfish

C) Basking shark

D) Giant oarfish

Answer · why

A) Whale shark

The whale shark can exceed 12 metres in length, and each one's pattern of spots is as unique as a fingerprint. It even appears on the back of the Phil...