User:Happyasaclam/sandbox
Great Finned Sand shark
[edit]The Great finned Sand shark is a mid sized predator of the Odontaspididae family, it possesses two fins on its back to assist in quick and sharp turns which are essential for catching the fast- moving prey of its ocean environment. The Great finned sand shark flourishes in mid-shallow water hunting, as most of its prey (such as barracuda, various species of stingray, and occasionally smaller reef fish) is located within those depths. The Great finned sand shark uses stealth to hunt primarily, submersing itself into sandy banks and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike to catch its prey off guard and make hunting easier. Vegetation within the habitat of the Great finned sand shark consists of typical reef corals commonly found within the regions of the gulf of Mexico to the Yucatan basin such as staghorn, elkhorn and brain corals. The Great finned sand shark will occasionally display a unique behavior to rid itself of parasites where it will swim to a coral reef, flip upside down and allow the small cleaner fish within the area to pick off anything they can find, similarly to the behavior of other reef sharks.
Adaptations
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The Great finned sand shark has adapted to its environment in a few ways, most predominantly though the development of a pronounced, long frontal dorsal fin. This fin serves multiple purposes, it is both a powerful tool in the shark’s ability to hunt as it enables fast adjustment of direction during hunting, as well as the size of the fin displaying both sexual maturity and health. The males use their large fins to catch the attention of female Great finned sand sharks, the larger the fin, the more attention and chances of reproduction the male will receive.
The Great finned sand shark has also developed 2 sets of eyes, one set smaller in size for use in high light environments or during the day time and one larger set used for visual accuracy and depth perception during night or in low-light environments. This ensures hunting success during all hours of the day, enabling better survivability as food is more readily available to those with better senses, consequentially leading to a healthier shark and a larger fin for courtship of female Great finned sand sharks.
The greyish beige skin of the Great finned sand shark has been developed through natural selection to better increase the animal’s chance of hunting success, as this leads to more unsuspecting prey. Again, this consequentially leads to a better chance for the males to develop larger fins and increase their chance of reproduction.
Evolutionary Background
[edit]As the Great finned sand shark is a member of the Odontaspididae family, it is very closely related to other species within the family, such as the sand tiger shark, small tooth sand tiger, and the bigeye sand tiger. It is also a cousin of the Lamnidae family consisting of the great white shark, shortfin mako shark, longfin mako shark, salmon shark and porbeagle shark. Through genetic drift the Great finned sandshark has both a unique appearance to others in its family, as well as a unique hunting style of motionless stealth while submersed in the sandy banks of its environment, similar but different to the motionless hunting style of other Odontospididae species with the key difference being stealth.