How Did Sharks Survive So Many Mass Extinctions?

Sharks have been around for over 400 million years, and in that time have made it through 4 of the 'Big 5' mass extinctions of life. How did they manage this? And will they be able to survive the sixth major mass extinction?

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#SharkWeek2021

[jabbrewoki]

I'm realizing paleo-artists are the hidden lineage of true masters in the world of modern art. They should get more cultural recognition.

[CuriousArchive]

The fact sharks were roaming the oceans over 100 million years before the dinosaurs and are still around today is mind-blowing

[hera]

Short story: learn to eat everything.

That’s probably how crocodilians survived as well.

[brendanlogue]

Turns out being a torpedo with teeth is the perfect plan for earth's oceans

[sierrajohnson]

When the world ends, it’ll just be Sharks, Roaches, and Cher

[Patmccalk]

I honestly find it even more amazing that they made it through all these mass extinctions as primarily piscivorous apex predators. Predators normally get hit the hardest when the bottom of the food chain gets knocked out from under them

[DarthShadow]

When you’re as smooth as sharks are, extinction events just slide right off.

[skininthebin]

I really like how most of the sharks images show sharks with a grin

[utubeisCensorred]

Maybe the real sharks are the mass extinctions we have made along the way.

[a.randomjack]

We might also need a turtle week. They also survived many extinctions and are fascinating animals in their own well afapted way.

[mrpoyo]

Shark is the ultimate life form, reject humanity become sharks

[goldenageofdinosaurs]

The Golden Age of Sharks is a great name for a band.

[Cryptic_Bigfoot]

One thing I would like more attention to be brought to is the policy of shark culling in some places, (mainly Australia) that kills huge amounts of sharks every years and is extremely cruel.

[callunas]

It's really amazing that their body plan is so good that other lineages have arrived at the same conclusion many times. Ichthyosaurs, dolphins... the sharks really got it right.

[Skormie]

I love that you're promoting your mom's channel. I was watching her content and it really is great and deserves more views.

[petersmythe]

1. Sharks are incredibly diverse. Their eggs are in a lot of baskets so to speak.

2. Some niches are close to perfectly uncompetitive with any outside clade, giving them incredible ability to reenter a temporarily destroyed niche.

3. aquatic organisms live in a more stable environment and yet are also more mobile than terrestrial ones.

4. Sharks sometimes benefit from mass extinctions because marine tetrapods leave the apex predator niches empty.

5. Sharks are less sensitive to changes in pressure than some other marine organisms. Although they also lack active bouyancy control, this isn't necessarily a huge problem seeing as they often breath by ram ventilation and so hydrodynamic lift can make up the difference. This means that perhaps a wider range of environments are accessible to unspecialized sharks than many other animals.

[thedoruk]

That could be summarized as voracious opportunistic *cannibalism* being absolutely magical!

[ryangoslingdrive]

Soy Dinos: nooo you can't just survive all of this chaos going on
Chad Sharks: hehe water go blub

[thatguywesmaranan]

"reject humanity, return to sharke."

- albert einstein, 2021 -

[BoisegangGaming]

"How many extinction events have you survived?"
"I Dunno, Cretacious, Paleogene, Neogene..."

Sharks: "Amatures."