GREAT WHITE SHARK
As Mother's Day has just recently passed, I wondered what sharks contribute to motherhood.
As if the Great White needs any more bad press, they are also OVPVIVIPAROUS. This means that the eggs hatch and the babies develop inside the mother's body. Since the female has no placenta to nourish the babies, they eat any unfertilized eggs and then each other. Naturally very few pups are born at a time since they've already eaten their siblings.
That's right baby sharks are called pups.
Some sharks have a placenta similar to mammals. After fertilization of the eggs inside the mother a yolk sac forms and attaches to the uterine wall. The placenta then transfers nutrients to the developing embryo and the pups are born live and fully developed. Examples include bull sharks, reef sharks and hammerheads.
No comments:
Post a Comment