Cookie cutter sharks fasten onto prey, then twist and pull away flesh, leaving a hole like that made by a cookie cutter. Nurse sharks use thick lips to suck food from rocky crevices. A keen sense of smell helps sharks find food. Through touch, hearing, and sight, they detect movement in the water. A special organ on the snouts of sharks, called the ampullae of Lorenzini, allows them to detect weak electrical voltages from living creatures or ocean currents.
Humans pose a greater danger to sharks than sharks do to humans.
People kill about 100 million sharks each year, eating shark fin soup and shark meat, using shark oil cosmetics, wearing sharkskin boots and shark tooth jewelry, and using parts of the shark to make medicines. Most fish have bony skeletons, but sharks have skeletons made of cartilage. Also, throughout their lives, all sharks grow new teeth, with one set of teeth constantly growing in behind another. And instead of scales, sharks have a rough surface covered with denticles or skin-teeth. Sharks come in many sizes.