Nevertheless, many living sharks have a long history. By the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs still lived, most of the sharks we recognize today were in the sea. Of course, they weren t exactly like their descendants who live today. Over millions of years, they have changed somewhat in color, size, etc. The most recent sharks are the hammerheads, which have only been around for about 25 million years.
Hammerheads are among the species that can be found along the Georgia coast today.
Fortunately, an even more recent shark does not live along Georgia any more. Shark teeth six inches long are souvenirs of Carcharodon , an animal that lived during the Miocene Epoch between five and 22 million years ago. The largest fish living today is the whale shark, which can grow to sixty feet. Its range includes the Atlantic Ocean, but it generally feeds in the open sea, far from land. The whale shark is a peaceful giant which, like the largest whales, feeds on tiny plankton and small fishes.