Q 01/05

What is the great white shark's scientific name?

A) Carcharhinus leucas

B) Carcharodon carcharias

C) Galeocerdo cuvier

D) Isurus oxyrinchus

Answer · why

B) Carcharodon carcharias

The others are the bull shark, tiger shark and shortfin mako.

Q 02/05

The great white's genus name combines two Greek words meaning what?

A) White belly

B) Sharp tooth

C) Great fish

D) Sea dog

Answer · why

B) Sharp tooth

Sharp tooth: the same Greek root for 'sharp' or 'jagged' gave the ancient Greeks their everyday word for a shark, which the great white carries as the...

Q 03/05

Which name do Australians commonly use for the great white shark?

A) Whitetip

B) White pointer

C) Grey nurse

D) Bronze whaler

Answer · why

B) White pointer

White pointer: like 'great white', the name comes from the pale belly, the first thing anyone saw when a dead shark lay upside down on a boat's deck.

Q 04/05

How does a mature female great white typically compare with a mature male?

A) Clearly shorter

B) About the same length

C) Clearly longer

D) Shorter but heavier

Answer · why

C) Clearly longer

Clearly longer: she also takes about 33 years to mature against 26 for a male, and that slow start is one reason great white numbers recover so slowly...

Q 05/05

Researchers tell individual great whites apart by the notched rear edge of which fin?

A) Its dorsal fin

B) Its tail fin

C) Its pectoral fin

D) Its pelvic fin

Answer · why

A) Its dorsal fin

Its dorsal fin: the edge works like a fingerprint, and photographs of it have let researchers recognise a single shark across more than twenty years a...