THE HAMMERHEAD SHARK

                                                                                                                                                     BY KEVAN PATEL

    Found in temperate and tropical waters worldwide, far offshore and near shorelines, hammerheads are often seen in mass summer migrations seeking cooler water. They are gray-brown to olive-green on top with off-white undersides, and they have heavily serrated, triangular teeth. Their extra-tall, pointed dorsal fins are easily identifiable.

 Most hammerhead species are fairly small and are considered harmless to humans. However, the great hammerhead's enormous size and fierceness make it potentially dangerous, though few attacks have been recorded.

   Hammerhead populations are not accurately known, but appear stable worldwide, and they are not considered threatened. 

http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2008/02/SharkAP_450x300.jpg                                                           http://www.underwatertimes.com/news2/record_hammerhead.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEkep0KL9Xw                                                                                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vyqn9dxd1Q 

    Hammerhead sharks are consummate predators that use their oddly shaped heads to improve their ability to find its prey.

 Their wide- set of eyes give them a better visual range than most other sharks. And spreading their highly specialized 

 sensory organs over their wide mallet shaped head, they can more thoroughly scan the ocean for food.

  One group of sensory organs is the ampullae of Lorenzini, which allows sharks to detect, among other things, the electrical fields created by prey animals. The hammerhead's increased ampullae sensitivity allows it to find its favorite meal, stingrays, which usually bury themselves under the sand.