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Crocodile Shark

Pseudocarcharias kamoharai

Average Size – 2.5 to 3ft

They have small slender bodies with small fins, huge eyes, and long gill slits. They are grey to grey-brown with lighter undersides.

Crocodile Sharks are similar to Cookie-Cutter Sharks in evolutionary features.

Found worldwide in tropical waters of the open oceans.

They are typically found in the pelagic zone, meaning from surface to around 1,900ft of depth.

Bony fish, Squid, and Shrimp. It is believed they do most of their hunting at night, near the surface. It is a rare sighting to see a Crocodile Shark above 600ft of depth during the day time.

They are strong, active swimmers, and will swim closer to the surface at night and swim deeper in the water during the day.

There is a story that when AT&T installed new fiber-optic cables in the Canary Islands that these cables were mysteriously breaking and thus causing shorts in the system. It was discovered that Crocodile Sharks were attracted to the electric fields radiating from the cables and they seemed to enjoy taking nibbles out of these fiber cables.

They are considered harmless to people because of their small size, though they are known to still have quite the powerful bite.

 

Their vulnerability status, though lacking sufficient information, is considered to be of least concern.

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Crocodile Shark Graphic
"File:Pseudocarcharias kamoharai Fishes of Australia.jpg" by Martin Gomon / Museum Victoria is licensed under CC BY 3.0
Crocodile Shark Header
"File:Pseudocarcharias kamoharai Fishes of Australia.jpg" by Martin Gomon / Museum Victoria is licensed under CC BY 3.0
Crocodile Shark (Pseudocarcharias_kamoharai) Gallery
By NOAA Observer Program - http://www.fpir.noaa.gov/Graphics/OBS/obs_sharks/obs_crocodile_sharks/obs_crocodile_shark3.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org