Shark Week

Perfect Shark (2006x3)

Air date: Aug 01, 2006

Is there such a thing as a perfect shark? After all, sharks have been evolving for 400 million years. Host Mike deGruy, who has filmed sharks for over 30 years, heads out in the world’s oceans in search of perfection in its top predators, examining the most streamlined and extreme designs of shark today. Mike also steps back in time to look at sharks of the prehistoric past, via a virtual aquarium that allows him to conjure up and interact with images of any shark that ever lived. So which shark is the most perfectly designed? Mike examines a wide variety of suspects, including: the great white, growing up to 20 feet long and possessing a streamlined body, massive jaws and serrated teeth; the extinct Megalodon, which at up to 60 feet in length was the largest shark ever known, with the ability to slice through whales; filter-feeders like the enormous whale shark, the coldwater-dwelling basking shark and the deep-sea megamouth shark; sharks that possess unusual jaws and teeth, such as the cookiecutter shark, the dusky shark or the prehistoric Helicoprion; the mako, the world’s fastest shark; and the tough bull shark, one of the few sharks that can be found in both fresh and salt water.