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POPSAmazing Shark Pictures Off South African Coast "To see a perfectly streamlined great white slowly cruising in clear water with shafts of light bouncing off its back is like watching a sports car effortlessly cruise past you on the freeway. It is just one of those moments that makes you appreciate a beautiful creation."
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POPSAnimal senses humans don't have You might think you're smart, but none of your senses rival the keenest abilities in the animal world. Animals see in the dark, sniff prey miles away, and detect electrical output from muscle twitches in hidden meals. Read on, so you don't become one of those meals.<<
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POPSMass extinctions? Blame it on the ocean In the course of hundreds of millions of years the world's oceans have expanded and contracted in response to the shifting of the Earth's tectonic plates and to changes in climate. There were periods of the planet's history when vast areas of the continents were flooded by shallow seas such as the shark and mosasaur infested seaway that neatly split North America during the age of the dinosaurs. As those epicontinental seas drained, animals like mosasaurs and giant sharks went extinct, and conditions on the marine shelves where life exhibited its greatest diversity in the form of things like clams and snails changed as well.
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POPSHow To Survive A Shark Attack If you're out diving and you see that big dark murky ominous shadow coming closer, if you don't have time to get out of the water, head for the bottom. Sharks attack from below and up, so get yourself flat to the ocean floor and wait for it to swim away. Stay calm, don't panic. Remember you have to totally over-exaggerate the size of the beast later, when you're at the pub, bragging about how you survived your ordeal. It's the custom. (All who have ever fished, will understand this rule. ;))
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POPSThe end of Men? A surprising number of animals can reproduce without male involvement if there is no other option. Sharks and lizards have demonstrated this ability in captivity. It was previously believed that the process was impossible in mammals such as humans because male sperm cells and female egg cells undergo a process called imprinting. In imprinting, sections of each cell’s genome are silenced to allow the set of genes from the other parent to be expressed, so that when the egg and sperm cells combine, the genes in the resulting embryo are not competing with each other. It has now been discovered that it is possible to interrupt this process by deleting just two sections of genetic material on the genomes of female mice – animals very similar, for reproductive purposes, to humans.
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POPSGreat White Sharks http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/photos/great-white-sharks/eye-level-great-white.html
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POPSSharks use snot to hunt prey. If someone is rescued bleeding, the shark is likely to attack the injured rather than the rescuers. The gel like substance produced by sharks, conducts electricity and can detect the weak electrical fields produced by other fish, and blood.