WITH JUST OVER 500 DIFFERENT species of shark classified, and a further two dozen waiting to be formally scientifically named, shark taxonomy is not for the faint-hearted. But there is one group that surely everyone would immediately recognise: the hammerheads.
Sporting a wide, flattened head that is uniquely shaped like a double-headed hammer, it’s not hard to see how these sharks got their name. The eyes and nostrils are located at either end of the ‘hammer’ – or cephalofoil, as it’s technically called.
The explanation behind the shape of the hammerhead’s headdebated. While undoubtedly giving the sharks extra lift, the cephalofoil may also help them make sharper turns in the water. The widely spaced eyes allow for effective stereoscopic vision, while the head’s broad shape also houses a sense organ known as the ampullae of Lorenzini. Packed with electroreceptors and operating like an underwater metal detector, it helps the sharks to detect prey hidden on or just under the sea-floor sediment.
