The Origin of Sharks

In the first video of this year's Shark Week we investigate the earliest evolution of the sharks, and look at just where and when these incredibly remarkable animals came from.

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Art used:
Corey Ford
DiBgd
Dirk Wachsmuth
dustdevil

#sharkweek

[ОлегОленев-яо]

Make an in-depth video about the weirdest extinct ones, please.

[MrSpaceManEQUJ]

Who would win:

An event that obliterated 90% of all living species, nearly leaving the Earth lifeless?

Or...

Some swimmy bois?

[diegodankquixote-wry]

alternate title: evolution of some of the worlds *best aquatic 🅱ois*

[maxgreece]

Cartiledge is fantastic stuff but useless for fossilization. We may never know of dozens of share species that came and went aside from a few miscellaneous teeth.

[planetaxolotl]

What’s your favorite prehistoric shark? You “Megalodon!” Me, an intellectual “Antarctilamna”

[RuggedCoyote]

Honestly, Republic Commando deserves a remaster

[sirmeowthelibrarycat]

😸 Well done, Ben! You managed to introduce a very complex issue very clearly. Sharks and their relatives are so fascinating and it is such a shame that people think of them as portrayed in a certain novel and film. I recall the episode from the ‘Kon Tiki’ story when the balsa wood raft was approached by a whale shark seemingly out of curiosity. One of the crew swam alongside the shark without fear until it swam away. How thrilling that must have been for all the men on board such a fragile craft! Once again, kind regards from 🇬🇧 and 🐈

[darklight]

I noted how all this very old and primitive true sharks had sharp points on the tip of the dorsal fins... this clearly means that they weren't top predators at that time and they were preyed by fairy LARGER fishes, large enought to swallow them.

[unstoppableExodia]

The notion that sharks are primitive creatures that have remained unchanged over hundreds of millions of years is indeed deeply flawed. I believe it's based on two things:
1) the perception that all sharks are just variations of the great white shark, a perception that can only be held by people who are unaware of whale sharks or carpet sharks

2) knowing enough to know that sharks have cartilagenous skeletons and making the assumption that ossification of cartilage into bone was definitely an evolutionary advancement and that sharks are an evolutionary relic

[FatRakoon]

What a fantastic video. Crystal clear and very informative. Definitely one deserving a sub.
I have previously studied Whales and Whale evolution, and have done a little digging into Shark evolution to, but only in a "ooh lets have a looksie" kind of way and never in a serious way.
This video was really entertaining and educational to me, so many thanks.

[joshadams]

You are an excellent scriptwriter. So many YouTube videos are little more than animated listicles. But you break down complicated subjects and present them in an interesting way.

[The_Robert.Fletcher]

Great start to Shark Week they are truly wonderful and like so many apex predators are misunderstood.

[ElazarY]

It’s like danger noodle and a swimmy boi had a baby.

[JoseFlores-xcwu]

I wish that the tv shark week did stuff like this this telling the history of sharks instead of giving the same videos every year is cool to learn where sharks came from and the different species of sharks that had live through out history i love sharks they are probably my favorite sea animal so thank you for the video

[siervodedios]

Sharks are so amazing! They don't get enough love in my opinion, thank you guys for showing these critters some love! Such a shame that sharks have gotten such a bad rep all because of media like 'Jaws'. 😥

[Sam-imtc]

Generally speaking most people that say sharks haven't evolved much are looking at what we generally think of as species like the Cretoxyrhina vs sharks like the modern day great white. The basic Great White style shape has served sharks well for at least the last 65 or so million years. Theres not a very high number of people that realize just how ancient sharks really are.

Overall through their long history yes sharks have changed quite a bit. But I think it is quite safe to say that evolution has slowed down for sharks since at least the extinction of large marine reptiles like mosasaurs.

[Dullahan]

I'm starting to learn a bit more about older sharks through doing some palaeo volunteering at my local museum, but sorting through bulk teeth is hard as one shark can have several different types of teeth.

[mucusmayhem]

I think sharks are one of the best looking animals on the planet.
But on land it has to be insects.

[Sawrattan]

Your videos are a pleasure to watch. Clear commentary and beautiful realistic graphics. ❤

[lynnk]

I never knew that shark history actually interests me. A short but very informative video.