Sharks are a domineering presence in the ocean, second only to whales, they are huge, fast moving, and a mouth of fangs is particularly eye-catching.
General sharks have pointed heads and spindle-like whole bodies, but one shark looks very strange, and their heads resemble hammers!
This shark is called the hammerhead shark, the bun is the meaning of the bun, the bun is two buns, see it you will think of the ancient women's high bun.
A grotesque hammerhead shark with a head
As we imagined, the hammerhead shark has another name, the hammerhead shark, and the metaphor of the hammer is more intuitive than the bun.
Living in tropical and subtropical oceans and distributed all over the world, hammerhead sharks are fierce in nature, often moving in groups during the day, but turning into lone rangers at night.
The hammerhead shark family ranges in length from 0.9 m to 6 m and weighs from 3 to 580 kg, with the largest being the grooveless hammerhead shark.
Corresponding to the strange head, the eyes of the hammerhead shark are also very open or far apart, and they are located at both ends of the hammer head, which has the feeling of Yang Ren in the list of gods.
Although we call this strange head a hammer, it is called a head wing (or head lobe) in science because it resembles a pair of very thin wings.
Scientists have discovered that the odd shape of the hammerhead shark is actually a new form that evolved not long ago, and they are the youngest sharks in existence.
Molecular evidence suggests that hammerhead sharks only evolved from the ocean about 20 million years ago, and sharks have been around for 350 million years.
So, what is the special role of this head wing? Why do hammerhead sharks grow such strange things?
There are several possible explanations for these issues.
Improve the efficiency of swimming
In a study published in 2003, scientists found that the Luxe hammerhead shark turned in the water much more frequently than the sandbar shark with a traditional nose.
What's more, they are twice as fast when turning, suggesting that the head wing may help hammerhead sharks maintain their body balance when turning.
But what the real mechanism of "keeping the balance" is has not yet been determined, and the mechanics or fluid mechanics involved in it have not been solved.
The researchers speculated that their head wings may have something in common with the front wings of human candors, but the findings showed that hammerhead sharks do not roll their bodies when turning, suggesting that their head wings are not capable of manipulating their own bodies.
Hammerhead sharks can also "bow their heads" compared to the average shark, and they are likely to use this advantage to give the water more motivation to move forward.
Improve your eyesight and feel the electromagnetic field
The head of the hammerhead shark can reach half its body length, and you may only be able to see its head if viewed from the front, because the body is covered.
And its eyes are long at both ends of the head, you can imagine, the two eyes are several meters apart, how much distance between people's eyes.
The study found that the wider the head of the hammerhead shark, the greater the range of binocular vision, and this vision can improve their perception of the depth of the ocean.
We know that some herbivores on land, such as cattle and sheep, have eyes on both sides of their heads, which will better find natural enemies.
But in front of the hammerhead shark, these animals are dwarfed, and their vision can really be said to be "eye view six roads" all-round no dead end.
In addition to improving vision, the head wing may also be able to sense electromagnetic fields, which act like a metal detector that helps hammerhead sharks search for food in the sand on the ocean floor.
Helps hammerhead sharks prey
Can the head wing also be used as a weapon? It sounds a little strange, if a horizontal "crown" grows on a person's head, it seems to have little effect on the battle.
But the use of head wings to catch fish by hammerhead sharks has been seen by humans, and it is not the hammerhead shark researchers who see this scene, but the stingray researchers.
A marine biologist who studied stingrays in the Bahamas saw the hammerhead shark fishing, and it did use its head wing to press the stingray to the bottom of the sea and bite its fins.
Can improve the sense of smell
The long head of the hammerhead shark causes their eyes to be far apart, and their nostrils are also widely separated, which may improve their sense of smell.
Studies have shown that the hammerhead shark can accurately identify which nostrils smell the smell, and then it will turn its head to the other side and follow the smell.
For ordinary animals, this accurate discrimination is difficult to achieve, because the nostrils are too close, and we humans can't tell the difference.
Moreover, the nostrils at a longer distance also allow them to feel the difference in smell on both sides in a rapid swim, which is quite useful for fishing.
At last
The social synergy of hammerhead sharks is very strong, they often form a large group of hundreds of them, and it is the high degree of sociality that gives them a large brain.
But there are also major drawbacks to this swarm habit because they are easily caught by humans, and the Hammerhead Shark has become an endangered animal.