Planet of the apex: test your shark knowledge with our fin-tastic quiz

1. What is the collective noun for sharks?

   1. A shiver of sharks

   2. A conspiracy of sharks

   3. A suit of sharks

   4. An armoury of sharks

2. Which of these sharks is no fairytale?

   1. Troll

   2. Elf

   3. Goblin

   4. Loch Ness

3. Swell sharks can swallow water to make themselves appear bigger, and bark like a dog when lifted out of the water. They also give off an ethereal green glow: why?

   1. Toxic chemical spills have turned them green

   2. They eat a lot of bioluminescent plankton

   3. So they can identify each other in the dark

   4. They have faint genetic links to an alien species

4. A celebrity great white shark known as Katherine, with 60,000 Twitter followers, works the waters off the North American coast. When she’s not breaking the internet (OK, the OCEARCH shark tracker site) with her location pings, she’s providing crucial learning about the mating habits of sexually mature great whites. How long is the gestation period for great white pups?

   1. 18 months

   2. 3 months

   3. 4 years

   4. Nothing - they lay eggs

5. Which of these characters from JR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has a shark namesake?

   1. Sauron

   2. Frodo

   3. Gandalf

   4. Gollum

6. Which of the following is untrue about the song Baby Shark (YouTube views as of publication: 5.9bn)?

   1. It is a tried-and-tested song for setting the pace of CPR

   2. People have reported that listening to the song backwards reveals satanic messages

   3. It was sung at a protest in Lebanon to soothe a toddler in his mum’s car

   4. No one knows who created (and can be blamed for) the original baby shark

7. The mako shark is the ocean's fastest, able to swim as fast as 35mph. What unusual attribute contributes to its speed?

   1. It uses its fins in a propeller motion

   2. It blows water backwards from its mouth

   3. It builds speed by leaping out of the water

   4. It is partially warm-blooded

8. Frilled sharks are one of the oldest species of shark in the world – mysterious ocean bottom-dwellers that resemble a cross between an eel and a shark. When do experts estimate this species appeared?

   1. 65 million years ago – around the time a mass extinction wiped out the dinosaurs

   2. 25 million years ago – when apes diverged from old world monkeys

   3. 95 million years ago – in the last portion of 'the age of dinosaurs'

   4. 200 million years ago – when the supercontinent Pangea began to break up

9. Which shark takes cylindrical chunks of flesh out of its prey – often much larger sharks and whales?

   1. Cookie-cutter shark

   2. Gulper shark

   3. Sponge-sucker shark

   4. Lemon shark

10. What did Donald Trump once tweet about sharks?

    1. Every time I speak of sharks I do so with great love and affection. They cannot help the fact that they were born fucked up!

    2. Obama's wind turbines kill millions of sharks in sharknados every year. The Paris climate agreement hurts Americans, sharks, and costs a fortune

    3. Sharks are last on my list – other than perhaps the losers and haters of the World!

    4. Sharks only bite do-nothing Democrats! Swim faster LOSERS!

11. What method of repelling sharks is being trialled in Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean?

    1. Magnets disguised as kelp

    2. 'Scaresharks'– giant inflatable sharks

    3. Nets baited with chum

    4. Playing jazz underwater

12. The tasselled wobbegong is often found on coral reefs or near the shore in Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. What trick does it use to catch its food?

    1. Vigorously shakes its tassels to cause underwater waves to dislodge prey

    2. Filters fish and plankton through its open mouth as it moves

    3. Squirts a cloud of noxious gas to confuse its prey

    4. Camouflages itself as coral and wobbles its tail back and forth in a mesmerising dance to lure fish

13. Which of the following most accurately resembles how the skin of most sharks would feel under your hand?

    1. Silk

    2. Leather

    3. Sandpaper

    4. Scales

14. Miss Helen, a female grey horn shark, was abducted from a US aquarium in 2018. How did they smuggle her out?

    1. Pretended she was a toy from the gift shop

    2. Dressed her up as an employee

    3. Wheeled her out in a baby’s pram

    4. Pretended to impound Miss Helen as evidence in a fake cocaine bust

15. Sharks are often caught as bycatch in the Mediterranean. According to the Italian coast guard and experts, what is shortfin mako or blue shark often fraudulently sold as?

    1. Swordfish

    2. Calamari

    3. Chicken

    4. Tuna

16. What are the ampullae of Lorenzini?

    1. A species of shark found in the Mediterranean

    2. The top sharks in a group that hunt together

    3. Roman shark gods

    4. The system of electromagnetic receptors on a shark's snout

17. Fish are friends (sometimes). There are many examples of sharks enjoying a gentler relationship with their surroundings than their reputation as mindless killers would suggest. Which of the following is untrue?

    1. Remora fish hitch rides on some shark species

    2. Dolphins and sharks often work together to corner schools of fish

    3. Sharks allow pilot fish to swim inside their mouths to pick food from their teeth

    4. Bonnethead sharks munch on seagrass

18. What have scientists never seen a whale shark do?

    1. Give birth

    2. Surface

    3. Change direction

    4. Feed

19. What great white shark mystery is concerning experts in Cape Town, South Africa?

    1. They found a skeleton of one on Table Mountain

    2. They've all disappeared

    3. They’ve been propelling themselves on to beaches

    4. They're eating the base of the harbour walls

20. In May, customs officials made the biggest shark fin seizure in Hong Kong history: 26 tonnes, in two shipping containers from Ecuador. How many sharks were the fins taken from?

    1. 500

    2. 38,500

    3. 2,000

    4. 17,500

Solutions

1:A, 2:C, 3:C, 4:A - Great whites have a gestation period similar to Asian elephants. Pregnant great whites are known to swim thousands of miles to nursery sites, one of which was discovered off Long Island, New York, in 2016, 5:D - Taxonomist Leonard Compagno named this group of groundsharks in 1973, noting that they bear 'some resemblance in form and habits' to the Tolkien character, 6:B, 7:D - While most sharks are cold-blooded, makos are endotherms (partially warm blooded), which affords them explosive power and speed. Great whites share this quality, 8:C - They are known as living fossils. A warning about Googling them: their weird appearance might haunt your dreams, 9:A, 10:C, 11:A, 12:D, 13:C - Sharks are covered with dermal denticles – tooth-like structures that decrease drag to help the shark swim faster and more quietly, 14:C - CCTV footage showed Miss Helen being grabbed from an open pool and wrapped in a wet blanket before being wheeled away. She was found and returned to San Antonio aquarium days later, where staff said she was recovering well from the shock, 15:A, 16:D - Sharks’ heads and snouts are covered with a network of pores that detect tiny electrical signals. Rubbing a shark on the nose can induce a trance-like state (though we wouldn’t recommend trying this), while punching it is said to help to stop an attack. Sharks’ ampullae network is named after Stefano Lorenzini, the Italian scientist who discovered it in 1678, 17:B - Dolphins and sharks often compete for the same food sources, so while each species tends to mind their own business, they don’t work together. Sharks sometimes fare badly in encounters with dolphins, which may ram them if they feel threatened, 18:A - The mating and birthing cycle of these gentle giants remains shrouded in mystery, 19:B - Not long ago, there were 200 or so sightings a year. Last year there wasn't one. Experts believe longline fishing, pollution or the arrival of orcas may be keeping them away, 20:B

Scores

1. 20 and above.

   Congratulations – top sharking skills

2. 19 and above.

   Excellent shark skills. You are all about the apex

3. 18 and above.

   Excellent shark skills. You are all about the apex

4. 17 and above.

   Excellent shark skills. You are all about the apex

5. 16 and above.

   Excellent shark skills. You are all about the apex

6. 15 and above.

   Excellent shark skills. You are all about the apex

7. 14 and above.

   Excellent shark skills. You are all about the apex

8. 13 and above.

   Between a rock and a shark place. Just keep swimming – there’s more to learn

9. 12 and above.

   Between a rock and a shark place. Just keep swimming – there’s more to learn

10. 11 and above.

    Between a rock and a shark place. Just keep swimming – there’s more to learn

11. 10 and above.

    Between a rock and a shark place. Just keep swimming – there’s more to learn

12. 9 and above.

    Between a rock and a shark place. Just keep swimming – there’s more to learn

13. 8 and above.

    Between a rock and a shark place. Just keep swimming – there’s more to learn

14. 7 and above.

    Between a rock and a shark place. Just keep swimming – there’s more to learn

15. 6 and above.

    Your knowledge of sharks is as nonexistent as a sharknado

16. 5 and above.

    Your knowledge of sharks is as nonexistent as a sharknado

17. 4 and above.

    Your knowledge of sharks is as nonexistent as a sharknado

18. 3 and above.

    Your knowledge of sharks is as nonexistent as a sharknado

19. 2 and above.

    Your knowledge of sharks is as nonexistent as a sharknado

20. 0 and above.

    Your knowledge of sharks is as nonexistent as a sharknado

21. 1 and above.

    Your knowledge of sharks is as nonexistent as a sharknado