Sharks:
Ancient Predators in a Modern Sea
by Salvador Jorgensen
QL638.9 .J67 2013
New Arrivals, 2nd floor
I think everyone in the United States has seen Anthony C. Ferrante’s movie Sharknado by now, or at least everyone I know has done so. I have no desire to see it, as it seems pretty scary. (I’m a horror wimp!) Real sharks, however, I find fascinating…especially on the pages of a book. Not so much off a beach at which I’m swimming.
Sharks are prehistoric fish that range from the tiny to the massive and live in primarily salty environs, although some live in freshwater too. One of the freakiest looking is the frilled shark (p. 59), which is the most primitive living shark, and some of the cutest are bamboo sharks (pp. 124 and 127). Don’t worry though, there’s plenty of coverage of the well-known great white and whale sharks as well.
I’ll state right from the start that Sharks is not a weighty tome of the sort it will take you weeks to slog through, although it is well referenced and chock full of great information. It’s mostly a picture book with a few paragraphs associated with each photograph. These images are amazing and the text extremely informative. Topics range from reproductive and mating strategies to predatory strategies and behaviors. There is even a phylogeny chart for those of you interested in evolutionary classification.
To find more books on sharks search “Everything” in Research@UWW for “sharks” and then limit to both the “books” resource type and the “sharks” subject on the left side.
