151 Crazy Facts About Sharks You Probably Didn’t Know

The ocean is full of surprises. If you’ve ever been on a boat and looked down into the water, you may have seen some enormous creatures swimming around. Maybe it was a whale or a dolphin, or it could have just been a kraken ready for a relaxing human hunting session. Who knows? But if you’re anything like us, you probably thought, “What else is down there?”

The answer is… lots of stuff we still don’t know anything about. More than 80% of the ocean remains unmapped, unexplored, and not even seen by humans. That’s because the intense pressures in the deep ocean make it an incredibly challenging environment to explore.

But one of the coolest (and scariest) things about what’s under the sea is still getting to know some interesting facts about all the different kinds of animals that live there, especially sharks! Sharks are fascinating creatures that have been around for 450 million years — that’s how old the first shark fossils are, making them older than dinosaurs — yet we still know very little about them.

If you think that sharks are nothing more than ocean-dwelling predators with a taste for human flesh (the Jaws franchise traumatized more than one generation), it’s time to get your shark facts straight! They’re undoubtedly mysterious and scary animals, but there’s so much to learn about them. Check out these shocking facts about sharks that even some experts may not know!