Steven Spielberg’s 1975 summer blockbuster Jaws (now streaming on Peacock) transformed sharks from seldom-thought-of fish into one of the most celebrated movie monsters of all time. Over the last half-century, scientists have learned a lot about sharks. We know now that they are complex creatures and much more than just mindless killing machines.
Today, sharks grace the patterns of children’s clothing, bedsheets, and lunchboxes. They even have their own oft-repeated preschool song. They’ve reached a level of cultural saturation usually reserved for dinosaurs and popular cartoon characters and yet, the image that they are sea monsters remains. In the interest of learning more about them, so we might fear them less, here are six facts about sharks you may not have known.
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