Bonnethead
Sphyrna tiburo
Size, compared with you
You: 1.7 m. Bonnethead: 1.5 m.
Person-sized. Grows up to about 1.5 m.
The bonnethead is a small hammerhead with a rounded, shovel-shaped head that lives in warm shallow bays and estuaries. It mostly eats crabs, but it also eats seagrass.
The weird bit
The bonnethead was the first shark found to eat plants as well as animals. A 2018 study found that it could digest about half of the seagrass it ate.
Quick facts
- Where it lives
- Coast and shallows, Rivers and estuaries, Coral reefDown to 80 m
- What it eats
- Mostly crabs, plus shrimp, shellfish, small fish and some seagrass
- How worried are we?
- In danger (Endangered)Assessed in 2019 by the IUCN Red List.