Amazing Images Reveal The Great White Shark’s Incredible Ability to Heal

Great white sharks have few predators capable of dominating them. Yet their lives are not easy as they have to deal with others of the same species.

Even having terrible wounds in a short time, white sharks can heal and this characteristic we also find in other species of sharks.

In the United States of America, a great white shark called ‘Crescent’ was sighted with a dorsal fin that gave the impression that it had been sewn together.

Crescent’s dorsal fin was photographed ripped in half in 2017.

Researchers from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy posted the excellent repair job on Twitter laste week.

The actual cause of white shark wounds is unknown. But in many cases, other great white sharks cause these wounds.

At the time of mating, the spots can get aggressive. Usually, the male bit the female to keep them together.

“Since most sharks have sharp teeth, the bites result in marked wounds on the females, which need to heal without contracting an infection. This is why the ability to heal wounds effectively is necessary,” told Newsweek shark researcher Mahmood Shivji of Nova Southeastern University in Florida.

Characteristics of great white sharks

Crescent is a male. You can see the difference in the long appendages found near to his pelvic fin in the full-body photo above. These structures receives the name of claspers and serve to channel the semen to the females at the time of mating.

This is probably why female white sharks have skin twice as thick as males. Fighting between males is practically non-existent; males may be able to heal wounds due to female defense.

Or, maybe the self-healing ability among male white sharks is likely inherited from ancestors. According to the Shivji statement, there is a belief that effective healing of wounds is a typical trait among other sharks and rays on earth today, which proposes to be an inherited trait.

Healing capabilities

Although the wound-healing ability of a few species has been studied, blacktip sharks are said to be particularly excellent at traumatic healing injuries, often inflicted by other sharks.

Detailed reports also show that whale sharks can quickly heal from deep wounds in the skin and blood vessels, which have grown quite large due to ship attacks. Researchers say that around 35 days, the species can heal 90% of tissue damage.

Compared to this fact, reef sharks can almost entirely cure combat wounds two feet (half a meter) in length within six months.

As with great white sharks, during the mating many wounds come to pass in female reef sharks. Researchers utilize the appearance of these gradually healing wounds to predict when copulation events might have happened.

Despite the great defense, the advance of the sharkskin needs a deep understing. Shyness is a characteristic of sharks and few research has directly studied their healing capabilities in a properly controlled environment.

Genome of great white sharks

However, the great white shark genome was studied in 2019. Adaptations for wound healing were notable in the results.

Such genetic flexibility, in collaboration with systems for correcting possibly harmful genetic errors, may be part of what aids great white sharks in healing wounds and preventing cancer. The life expectancy of the species reaches up to seventy years of age.

Shivji stated in 2019 to Business Insider that “we could known more with these hugely successful evolutionary wonders”.

“Their function and design are 400 million years of well-coordinated advancement.“

Read the original article on Science Alert.

Read more: Tiger Coastline Study Discloses Tiger Sharks Have Social Preferences for One Another