Sharks!

Skull of a hammerhead shark - nature historic museum in Bern.

Since my childhood one of my favourite animals was the shark, specifically the great white shark. Bit by bit I got some shark items in my collection and I also was lucky to have an eye to eye experience whit these magnificent animals! But how I did I get all that shark stuff and how was my meeting with the great whites? Read it under the cut!

Before I continue: Sharks are endangered animals! Never buy “new” shark items! Especially in tourist regions you can find a lot of shark items like teeth necklaces, jaws or small stuffed sharks. Some sharks are protected by law so you commit a crime if you buy stuff like that! And please don’t eat shark meat as well. You know, stuff like shark fin soup or “Schillerlocken” (curled strips of smoked dogfish).
Save the sharks!

But how did I get my shark stuff you ask? Well, some pieces are old. I got my shark jaws over twenty years ago from my beloved aunty. But it looks like new, eh? The rest of it I got via Ebay or I bought it on a mineral market. Read more information below.

Shark jaws, about 25cm long.

The most exciting part of a shark is its jaw! Its teeth are the only bone part on its body anyway. The rest of the shark skeleton is made of cartilage. Look at the jaws, there are several rows of razor sharp teeth! If the shark looses one tooth the one in the row behind will replace it. Each tooth is serrated like a saw, so the shark can bite through meat very easily.
Unfortunately I don’t know to which shark this jaw belongs to.

Several rows of razor sharp teeth.

Sharks exist for over 350 million years! That’s the reason why you can find so many fossilized shark teeth on mineral markets. You can buy those teeth with no doubt, because no shark was killed for its teeth, eh? ;)
It’s fascinating, isn’t it? The biggest shark which ever swam on earth was the Megalodon. A real giant of about 12 meters! Its teeth are about as big like my palm of hand. I think that’s the reason why Megalodon teeth are the most expensive ones. One time I will get one…

Tooth of Otodus obliquus.

You can find necklaces with shark teeth almost everywhere. But they don’t kill sharks only for its teeth, mind you. They kill sharks for meat and fins mostly. The jaws go to a taxidermist where they most likely get cleaned and find their way to a jeweller. I read that you can find shark teeth on the shores as well, so that the teeth for necklaces came from shores, but I can’t really believe that…
One of my good friends wanted to make me happy and bought me a nice shark tooth necklace. I don’t know if this tooth comes from the shore or from the meat manufactory, so I have a bad conscience and therefore don’t wear it. Sorry my good friend!

Serrated like a saw.

Sharks are multifarious. Some of them bear baby sharks (ovovivipar), other sharks lay eggs (ovipar). Lucky for me I found two shark eggs on Ebay! Well, the big one is the egg of a shark and the smaller one is an egg of a ray. Yes, rays belong to the shark family, too! My man and I found some empty eggs on a shore in South Africa this year, it was amazing! But I was not able to bring them home, bleh!

Odd shape, isn't it?

Ray egg, found in South Africa.

Our cage dive trip with great white sharks was in South Africa as well. Gansbaai is not called “world capital city of great white sharks” for no reason! And so we had a breathtaking experience with these amazing fishes! A long and desirous dream finally came true! <3
You can watch our shark trip video over here. But the file is very big, it will require some loading. I’m sorry.
Gosh, I was so sea sick back then and I froze half to death! But hey, I would do it a second time! Those great white sharks are so fantastic, I just love them!

Sharks are so fascinating! I could write about these animals with no end. But you can buy so many cool shark books, so you can read better written stuff over there. One of my favourite shark books was written by Steve Parker. I strongly recommend it.

You can buy it on amazon.