What are the various adaptations a shark has, and how do they help the shark search for prey?

Working with the precision of a finely tuned early warning system, each of the shark’s senses lock on as it approaches prey. With well developed inner ears, sharks can pick up sounds from up to 17 hundred yards away. Experiments have shown that sharks are particularly attracted to lower frequency sounds. Irregular vibrations with frequency at or below 40 hertz create frenzy among sharks. Not surprisingly this is the same frequency, made by a wounded fish.

As the shark closes within a few hundred yards of its eventual meal, the sense of smell takes over and guides it ever closer. A shark is capable of detecting a single molecule of blood in over a million molecules of water. The apparatus responsible for the smell is located in 2 nostrils near the front of the snout. As the shark swims, odor laded water is forced into its nostrils and over delicate sensory tissue. From about 100 yards, sharks are able to detect even the faintest vibrations created by the movements of struggling fish. At around thirty yards, the hunter can literally set its sights on the hunted.

The size and shape of shark eyes tends to depend on where the shark lives, sharks that feed in shallow waters usually have smaller eyes because they have more light to deal with, while sharks that live in deeper water have larger eyes. Some sharks also have an eyelid that closes to protect the shark while it bites its prey.

Shark teeth are varied in their design and purpose depending on the food source. The serrated and hooked teeth of a tiger shark are highly efficient sheering and tearing tools. Some teeth like that of the port Jackson shark are designed for crushing shellfish. The teeth of the Greenland shark are so sharp that they were once used by Eskimos for cutting hair. The wobegon uses its angled teeth to grasp its prey. Sharks lose teeth continuously throughout their lives. To replace them, some sharks have as many as 15 rows of teeth folded back into the tissue of the jaw.

What sharks choose to bite ranges from the predictable to the bizarre, one shark known to eat anything in its path is the tiger shark. Stomach contents have included things like : tennis shoes, medieval armor, nuts and bolts, tin can, life jacket, ammunition shell.