Crocodile shark
Pseudocarcharias kamoharai
Size, compared with you
You: 1.7 m. Crocodile shark: 1.1 m.
Person-sized. Grows up to about 1.1 m.
The crocodile shark is a small shark of the warm open ocean with big eyes and long, sharp teeth. It stays deep during the day and hunts nearer the surface at night.
The weird bit
In the 1980s, crocodile sharks bit and damaged some of the first deep-sea fibre-optic cables between Gran Canaria and Tenerife. The problem was fixed by wrapping the cables in a layer of steel tape.
Quick facts
- Where it lives
- Open ocean0 to 590 m down
- What it eats
- Open-water fish, squid and shrimp
- How worried are we?
- Doing okay (Least Concern)Assessed in 2018 by the IUCN Red List.