Great white sharks may get big when they grow up, but the babies are still relatively small and in need of protection from predators

Led by University of Vienna paleontologist Jaime A. Villafaña, an international team of scientists recently conducted a statistical analysis of 2 to 5 million-year-old great white shark teeth found in several sites along the Pacific coast of Chile and Peru. The teeth are typically all that remain of deceased prehistoric sharks, due to the fact that the animals’ cartilaginous skeletons don’t fossilize.

Based on the dimensions of the teeth, the scientists were able to estimate the body sizes and thus ages of the great whites they came from. One Northern Chilean location – an area known as Coquimbo – had the highest percentage of young sharks, the lowest number of adolescents, and a complete lack of adults.

This finding strongly suggests that the site was a nursery, where adult sharks protected babies from predators until they were large enough to fend for themselves. Although such nurseries still exist now, this is reportedly the first time that one has been discovered dating back to prehistoric times.

https://newatlas.com/biology/great-white-shark-prehistoric-nursery/

> One Northern Chilean location – an area known as Coquimbo – had the highest percentage of young sharks, the lowest number of adolescents, and a complete lack of adults. … Such nurseries still exist now.

That’s news to me. That great whites have nurseries. Check web.

Here’s a related article from the present day:

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2011/12/great-white-shark-nursery/

Expert Barry Bruce has never seen as many juvenile great whites in one location as this isolated stretch of beach off the central coast of NSW. The nursery area consists of a 50km stretch of broken coastline between Seal Rocks and Stockton Beach. The interaction of the East Australian Current with the structure of the coastline provides nutrient-rich conditions for schools of Australian salmon, mulloway, mullet and snapper, the favoured meals of the juvenile sharks.

The aggregation of sharks here was first brought to the attention of scientists and the public by a pair of Port Stephens fishers – Kris ‘Mackerel’ Macklin, and Glenn ‘Mullet’ Connell – who posted a video on YouTube called Great White Shark Hunters – Stockton Beach.

The sharks live in the nursery area between late winter and mid-summer, before moving south to the Corner Inlet region of Victoria, where they stay until autumn. It may just be that every juvenile great white shark in Australian waters visits this site.

mollwollfumble said:

> One Northern Chilean location – an area known as Coquimbo – had the highest percentage of young sharks, the lowest number of adolescents, and a complete lack of adults. … Such nurseries still exist now.

That’s news to me. That great whites have nurseries. Check web.

Here’s a related article from the present day:

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2011/12/great-white-shark-nursery/

Expert Barry Bruce has never seen as many juvenile great whites in one location as this isolated stretch of beach off the central coast of NSW. The nursery area consists of a 50km stretch of broken coastline between Seal Rocks and Stockton Beach. The interaction of the East Australian Current with the structure of the coastline provides nutrient-rich conditions for schools of Australian salmon, mulloway, mullet and snapper, the favoured meals of the juvenile sharks.

The aggregation of sharks here was first brought to the attention of scientists and the public by a pair of Port Stephens fishers – Kris ‘Mackerel’ Macklin, and Glenn ‘Mullet’ Connell – who posted a video on YouTube called Great White Shark Hunters – Stockton Beach.

The sharks live in the nursery area between late winter and mid-summer, before moving south to the Corner Inlet region of Victoria, where they stay until autumn. It may just be that every juvenile great white shark in Australian waters visits this site.

Corner Inlet is really shallow, except in the main channels. I expect that’s why few adult great whites go there. But nah, I’m not sure. It could be because, like Port Stephens/Newcastle, the water flow out from the mainland makes it a good fish habitat. There doesn’t seem to be anything special about the bathymetry from Stockton Beach to Seal Rocks.