Oscar De La Huerte answered
No one person can be credited with 'discovering' sharks.
Sharks evolved on earth over millions of years, and 'our' first encounters with sharks would probably have been between pre-historic man and a form of sea-creature that slightly resembles modern day sharks.
In fact, it has even been suggested by scientists that humans evolved from a shark-like aquatic creature!
Discovering sharks
The earliest form of creature that we might associate with a shark evolved during the Ordovician period - about 420 million years ago.
During the Middle Cretaceous period (about 100 million years ago) some forms of sea-life began to resemble modern-day sharks.
These came in the form of:
These creatures were so fearsome that there's even evidence that they hunted on dinosaurs which dared to stray into the water.
If we fast-forward a few million years, we come across another pre-historic shark-like creature called Acanthodes bronni. These foot-long plankton dwellers are thought to be the ancient precursor to modern sharks, but are also the possible beginning of all jawed vertebrates on land- including humans!
One final interesting bit of information is that the first recorded shark attack happened in 1749 in Havana, Cuba.
A 14-year-old crewmate called Brook Watson lost a leg and grew up to become the first peg-legged mayor of London!
Sharks evolved on earth over millions of years, and 'our' first encounters with sharks would probably have been between pre-historic man and a form of sea-creature that slightly resembles modern day sharks.
In fact, it has even been suggested by scientists that humans evolved from a shark-like aquatic creature!
Discovering sharks
The earliest form of creature that we might associate with a shark evolved during the Ordovician period - about 420 million years ago.
During the Middle Cretaceous period (about 100 million years ago) some forms of sea-life began to resemble modern-day sharks.
These came in the form of:
- Cretoxyrhina (25 feet long)
- Squalicorax (15 feet long)
These creatures were so fearsome that there's even evidence that they hunted on dinosaurs which dared to stray into the water.
If we fast-forward a few million years, we come across another pre-historic shark-like creature called Acanthodes bronni. These foot-long plankton dwellers are thought to be the ancient precursor to modern sharks, but are also the possible beginning of all jawed vertebrates on land- including humans!
One final interesting bit of information is that the first recorded shark attack happened in 1749 in Havana, Cuba.
A 14-year-old crewmate called Brook Watson lost a leg and grew up to become the first peg-legged mayor of London!
