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Why Do Hammerhead Sharks Have Hammer-Shaped Heads? | IFLScience We Have Questions

It’s high time you got to know the metal detectors of the sea.

Rachael Funnell headshot

Rachael Funnell

Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.

Senior Science Writer

Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.View full profile

Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.

View full profile
A composite picture of hammerhead sharks and hammers with a mobile phone showing the We Have Questions logo.

Hammerhead sharks have been around for about 20 million years, and in that time they’ve taken the shark body plan into new and unusual places.

Image credit: b113/Dmitrii Lisenkov/IndoTropict/Kletr/Kletre1/Mediterranean sea/Nerthuz/Seregam/woopics/shutterstock.com; modified by IFLScience

Is there a more perfectly named animal than the hammerhead shark? It’s a name that really hits the nail on the head, and – as we only recently learned – in more ways than one.

Host Rachel Funnell talks to Professor Stephen Kajiura, from the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic University, to find out how such a wacky design proved beneficial for these animals, and why a wide old noggin is actually pretty great when you live like the metal detectors of the sea.

 

You can listen to this episode and subscribe to the podcast on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Amazon Music, and more.

This interview first appeared in Issue 49 of our digital magazine CURIOUS. To access exclusive CURIOUS content first and receive the quarterly digital magazine, become an All Access Member.


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