Sharks: Aquatically Agog

Here's another factoid about sharks. Sharks are interested; they're the oceanic Curious Georges. If you're ever channel-surfing (and I know you watch television), stop by AnimalPlanet and check-out the pupil dilation of, say, a lion and that of a shark. The lion has a small little dot, an ioata of a miniscule pupil, while the entire sharks' eyes is just one enlarged, gigantic pupil orb. Obviously deeper water sharks have larger eyes compared to surface sharks, but you can't even see the iris (and yes sharks have cornea, retina, iris, and pupil, like we and most vertebrates do) of most sharks because they are so enlarged and inquisitive about their salty world. Look at the way they test out their environment, too; they chomp at an unknown object not out of malice, but sheer curiosity and a systematically inquiring playfulness. Predators of the sea, they may be; but calling a shark a "man-eater" is a major misnomer -- aquatically agog is more like it.

Another cool factoid about sharks: they see slideshows where humans see movies. "The minimum frequency of flashes or images at which an eye can no longer separate [images] is termed flicker fusion frequency" (1). In other words, the typical 24 frames/second rate of movies causes us to see seemless motion and flow of what is really rapidly-fired still frames. Sharks, operating at a 45 flashes/second flicker fusion see a rapid-fire slideshow with distinct, unmoving pictures, where humans see a seemless movie.

Our evolution as more advanced beings basically originates from our capacity to create technology; the earliest being building fires, cooking food, burying the dead, and like. But losing touch with our taxonomical relationship with other animals, as a hominid is asking for serious "de-evolution". A counter-balance must be maintained because technology and nature -- because technology is a great indicator of evolution but nature is the the supreme intelligence, the greatest technology of all.

The first human-like, hominid species is 4.4 million years old, and the oldest homo sapiens are 250,000 to 400,000 years old, and the modern human is 40,000 years old. Compared to sharks, our least evolved ancestor, the Australopithecus afarensis, ape is only 1/90 the age of sharks, and sharks are 1,000 times as old as the modern homo sapien. We can learn alot from the elderly!

As is true for all animal behavior and characteristics, we can take a major message from their clarity. We should embace the constant curiosity of a shark, but balance that by peppering it with stolid vigil of the lion. We, as humans may considered ourselves "more evolved" than lions, tigers, bears, and sharks, oh my(!), but if we forget to learn from the habits of animals, our "evolution" is insubstantial and at best, trivial. Weaving in the behavioral dance and specialties of animals doesn't cause us to devolve, but vivifies our existence.


1. http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/white_shark/vision.htm