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They haven't. While they have existed in the fossil record for some time, they are unique and specialized creatures that have not "evolved." There is no proof to support such a theory, especially as it pertains to sharks. In fact, it can be said that since they are one of the creatures that have changed the least over the years, they tend to refute the idea of evolution than support it.

But to the matter at hand. As we see them today, they range in size from just about the size of a minnow to the largest fish known to man, the whale shark, which fortunately for us, only eats conversely, the smallest of oceanic life, plankton.

Within their various families you will find specialized individuals that are designed for bottom feeding such as the nurse shark, with it's bottom facing mouth all but devoid of the typical sharp flesh-tearing teeth in favor of the more efficient mollusk-crushing variety. You will find those sharks that are suited to cold water, such as the mako or the great white, who have unique metabolisms that enable existence and predatory dominance in such cold waters where normally only warm blooded creatures of size excel. You will also find the tiny cookie cutter shark whose design is so specialized that it feeds exclusively on larger whales, leaving evidence of its namesake devoted in the thick blubber of the unknowing traveling buffets.

You will find solitary hunters, pack hunters, ambushers, filter feeders, cannibals, specialized and finicky eaters, as well as specimens that will the inedible.

You will find examples that inhabit the deepest and most inhospitable waters, as well as those that swim amongst us every weekend at the beach. They can endure the coldest depths and the slimmest of shallows.

They can lay eggs, they can have live births. They are supremely adaptable and underestimated as a source for food, study, and research. Much has been made lately of the study of sharks and cancer, as they tend to have some as yet unlocked natural immunity to the affliction.

The shark, no less impressive despite not having been evolved, but created in such variety, is an animal we would all do well to study, protect, respect, and preserve.

Learn more about this author, M.L. Brooke.
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