Hammerhead Shark Evolution

Every Jaws fan knows the shark gets it in the end. What they do not know is that too many sharks have gotten it; and that has caused a rapid decline in the shark population over the past thirty years. Since the 1970's, sharks of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico shores have declined eighty-five percent. Sharks are vital animal to our world's ecosystem, and if the decline is not controlled; we could be facing devastating problems in years to come. Information has been obtained from two books: The Shark Almanac by Thomas B. Allen and Sharks, An Introduction for the Amateur Naturalist by Sanford A. Moss. Sources also include a number of online references, among them BBC News, ENS News, The New York Times, and two online scientific

Great hammerhead sharks appear to adapt well to their environments. One of their capabilities is that they are opportunistic predators and are willing to eat anything they can get their hands on to help them survive. Consequently, one concern would be the changes in temperature in the water. The hammerhead does not seem to adapt well to the cooler waters.

If a bull shark and hammerhead shark were to fight, the bull shark would win. Bull sharks are the most dangerous sharks in the world! Along with this, bull sharks have special adaptations, and they hunt in shallow waters. Although hammerhead sharks have great vision, the shape of their heads, and the placement of their eyes cause them to have a huge blind spot right in the middle of their head. This makes it easier for other sharks to win a fight against the hammerhead.

The belief that various living organisms emerged from previous organisms throughout the history of the earth can be associated with the term evolution. One can therefore assume that there is a vast likelihood that prehistoric evolutionary processes have a significant impact on human behavior today. This paper hypothesizes that the human mind has information-processing mechanisms that are known as adaptions which have developed over time. It is believed that these adaptions were formed by natural selection in ancestral surroundings and have specialised functions that shape behaviour to allow one to solve specific adaptive challenges. Thus evolutionary psychologists suggest that individuals have what Jerome H. Barkow, Leda Cosmides, and John

Donohue, Patrick and Log, Destin. “Sharks 101.” State and Regional Newspaper, 7 September. 2006. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 28 May. 2016.

the black tip shark has a very pointy nose in fact more pointy than any other sharks it uses a chemical odor to attract a mate near by.

Anthropologists are continuously exploring the far corners of the world in search of answers to how everything came to be and the process by which we as humans appeared on this planet. This is a difficult task and therefore, there are many branches of anthropology which strive to discern the pieces of the puzzle from different perspectives and approaches. Through the implementation of the scientific method, anthropologists have tested numerous hypotheses to create theories like the Theory of Evolution. First documented by Darwin, natural selection, the process by which a more fit individual survives and passes on their adaptive traits, has been discovered to play a crucial role in the evolution of

Outlasting the worst catastrophes Earth has undergone, it seemed merely forty years ago sharks could and would outlive any event. Yet, even as sharks have the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, the summer of 1916 presented the first unexpected change for these great animals.

While most people were gathering their torches and sharpening their pitch-forks, set on destroying the oceans equivalent of a troll, those of a different nature began to group together and invest countless amounts of time and money to learn more about them. In the wake of Jaws, a whole constellation of dedicated shark research programs were begun or renewed. This resulted in numerous scientific conferences to allow researchers to share their results and collaborate on more ambitious projects. Rather than putting their prime focus on shark attacks, these meetings concentrated on shark systematics, physiology, life history, ecology, fisheries management and conservation. It is doubtful that this much fascination, be it fearful or curious, and funding would have had been available to support modern shark research had it not been for Jaws.

Human beings are still very much evolving. According to recent studies, genetic changes in women over the years have decreased the age at which they birthed their first child. In one study the age decreased as much as four years from age 26 down to age 22 (Allen 2011). Another concurrent study looked at women’s physical appearance in correlation with the number of children they had. The resulting data revealed that, “stout, slightly plump” women had more children. Researchers found that these characteristics are passed on from mothers to their offspring and so forth (Harrell 2009). Therefore, as these traits are passed from generation to generation, the population grows and these characteristics become more prominent in the population. All of these findings confirm that the evolution of human beings is still very much an ongoing process.

Recent studies from the article “Hammerhead shark migration gives new hope for conservation” discusses how these hammerhead sharks have been listed onto the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) since 2007, also having certain regulation about international trade threatening species going extinct. Dr. Tristian Guthridge explains the benefits of understanding the shark’s behavior and more research of where these sharks are migrating, and possibly manage the time of fishing in the areas to eliminate human and shark altercations. With the wide spread of ocean water it can be difficult to study the traveling of sharks; however, the research group was able to tag the sharks “with both acoustic and satellite tag, and use photo identification and laser photogrammetry” (Charlie Huveneers).

Chapter 7 revolves around beginnings of human research into the idea of evolution and an introduction of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. This chapter has given us, as students, more knowledge and insight into the topic of evolution. Since we were little kids, we always thought of evolution as the theory that establishes the link between humans and monkeys or that the phrase “Survival of the fittest” meant that the strongest always prevailed over the weak. However, this chapter has given us more detailed knowledge and background information about evolution, allowing us to lift these rumors and myths from our minds.

Great White Sharks have known to be a great source of fear throughout the numerous ages of sea exploration. With an average size of fifteen feet in length, it’s not hard to imagine why. They are the stuff of many nightmares, but they are largely misunderstood. There isn’t a lot of information on Great White behavior because many believe them to be an endangered species, due to dwindling food sources and overfishing. However, with conservation efforts, their numbers should rise and more studies can be done. The latest major discovery was just in 2014, which shows that with time, we can learn even more about them. In this paper I will study the sharks’ basic facts, their various behaviors, and the effect humans have on them.

Darwinian medicine, unlike most medical research that is focused on the proximate causes of diseases, looks at diseases from an evolutionary perspective; it seeks the reasons behind why natural selection has favored certain characteristics that are involved in disease acquisition or prevention. It looks into several concepts of adaptation including which types of adaptations combat pathogens, adaptations that pathogens have developed to counter other organism’s adaptations, maladaptive costs of organism’s adaptations, and adaptations that are no longer useful in our present day environment. The goal of this new science is to support advancements in the medical field. The ideas presented by Darwinian medicine are highly theoretical and still at the beginning of the process of development. Although it is a new science and has been a neglected perspective in the medical field, it offers insight on why natural selection has not selected for a flawless organism, what kinds of adaptations organisms have developed to combat injury, and what kinds of adaptations organisms have developed that are viewed today as mental disorders,.

Non-historical definitions of adaptations are more useful for modern interpretations of adaptations. Gould and Vrba’s hypothesis finally addressed the origin of the adapation and claimed “an adaptation was a trait whose “historical genesis” was due to the same selective pressure as that which currently maintains the trait.” An adaptation which no longer had a selective pressure was named an