SCAVENGER HUNT ANSWER KEY General Facts 1. What are the 5 specific creatures that a Hammer Head shark eats? Do they hunt alone?
A: Stingrays, crabs, lobsters, boney fishes and squid. Yes they hunt alone
2. What is the typical weight and length of a hammerhead shark?
A: 13 ft. 500 lbs
3. Where are Hammerhead sharks found? What type of water do they live in?
A: Hammerhead sharks are found in moderate and tropical waters. They are found in deep and shallow waters.
4. Why is the great hammerhead shark often confused with the smooth hammerhead shark?
A: Great hammerhead sharks are often confused with smooth hammerhead sharks because of their similar size.
5. How do hammerhead sharks reproduce?
A: Hammerhead shark eggs are fertilized inside the female's body.
6. When do hammerhead sharks migrate and to what kind of waters do they migrate to?
A: They migrate in the summer to cooler waters. Hammerhead Shark Species and Classification
7. What is the classification of the hammerhead shark?A: Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata, SubPhylum: Vertebrata, Class: Chondrichthyes, SubClass: Elasmobranchii, Order: Carcharhiniformes, Family: Sphyrnidae
8. What is the average length of a hammerhead?
A: 11.5 feet or 3.5 meters long
9. How many species of hammerhead sharks are dangerous to humans?
A: There are 3 species of hammerhead sharks that are dangerous to humans.
10. What species of hammerhead sharks are on the World Conservation Union's 2008 Red List as endangered?
A:The great and the scalloped hammerhead are on the endangered list.
Physical Features
11. Why do hammerhead sharks have broad heads?
A: The broad head may be adapted to maximize lateral search area. With an increased distance between the nostrils, hammerheads may be able to better track scent trails.
12. Do sharks have tongues?
A: Sharks have a tongue referred to as a "basihyal". The basihyal is a small, thick piece of cartilage located on the floor of the mouth of sharks and other fishes
13. Describe a hammerhead shark's teeth.
A: oblique, flattened blade with broad serrated shoulders, consistent in size from shoulders to tip of blade squared-off root.
Hammerhead Attacks
14. Why is it difficult to attribute many shark attacks to the hammerhead shark?
A: Because of the apparent difficulty of distinguishing large hammerhead species involved in attacks.
15. What is the hammerhead meat used for?
A: for human consumption (fresh, fresh-frozen, dried-salted, and smoked), its liver oil for vitamins, fins for soup, hides for leather, and carcasses for fishmeal.
16. What is the hammerheads favorite meal?
A: Hammerheads like all sorts of things ranging from small bony fish, squid, and other sharks, but their favorite meal seems to be stingray.
17. How do they capture and kill it?
A: They pin down the stingrays with their hammer head and feed on the ray's wings.
SCAVENGER HUNT ANSWER KEY
General Facts
1. What are the 5 specific creatures that a Hammer Head shark eats? Do they hunt alone?
A: Stingrays, crabs, lobsters, boney fishes and squid. Yes they hunt alone
2. What is the typical weight and length of a hammerhead shark?
A: 13 ft. 500 lbs
3. Where are Hammerhead sharks found? What type of water do they live in?
A: Hammerhead sharks are found in moderate and tropical waters. They are found in deep and shallow waters.
4. Why is the great hammerhead shark often confused with the smooth hammerhead shark?
A: Great hammerhead sharks are often confused with smooth hammerhead sharks because of their similar size.
5. How do hammerhead sharks reproduce?
A: Hammerhead shark eggs are fertilized inside the female's body.
6. When do hammerhead sharks migrate and to what kind of waters do they migrate to?
A: They migrate in the summer to cooler waters.
Hammerhead Shark Species and Classification
7. What is the classification of the hammerhead shark?A: Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata, SubPhylum: Vertebrata, Class: Chondrichthyes, SubClass: Elasmobranchii, Order: Carcharhiniformes, Family: Sphyrnidae
8. What is the average length of a hammerhead?
A: 11.5 feet or 3.5 meters long
9. How many species of hammerhead sharks are dangerous to humans?
A: There are 3 species of hammerhead sharks that are dangerous to humans.
10. What species of hammerhead sharks are on the World Conservation Union's 2008 Red List as endangered?
A:The great and the scalloped hammerhead are on the endangered list.
Physical Features
11. Why do hammerhead sharks have broad heads?
A: The broad head may be adapted to maximize lateral search area. With an increased distance between the nostrils, hammerheads may be able to better track scent trails.
12. Do sharks have tongues?
A: Sharks have a tongue referred to as a "basihyal". The basihyal is a small, thick piece of cartilage located on the floor of the mouth of sharks and other fishes
13. Describe a hammerhead shark's teeth.
A: oblique, flattened blade with broad serrated shoulders, consistent in size from shoulders to tip of blade squared-off root.
Hammerhead Attacks
14. Why is it difficult to attribute many shark attacks to the hammerhead shark?
A: Because of the apparent difficulty of distinguishing large hammerhead species involved in attacks.
15. What is the hammerhead meat used for?
A: for human consumption (fresh, fresh-frozen, dried-salted, and smoked), its liver oil for vitamins, fins for soup, hides for leather, and carcasses for fishmeal.
16. What is the hammerheads favorite meal?
A: Hammerheads like all sorts of things ranging from small bony fish, squid, and other sharks, but their favorite meal seems to be stingray.
17. How do they capture and kill it?
A: They pin down the stingrays with their hammer head and feed on the ray's wings.