Science is Fun Fridays!
It's Shark Week and what you're looking at here is shark skin. It is a matrix of tiny, hard, tooth-like structures called dermal denticles. The skin is so rough it can actually cause injury to prey while protecting the shark from damage and parasites. Their skin also increases their fluid dynamics.
These particular images are from a Gummy shark, aka an Australian smooth hound.
This shark has flat teeth to crush shelled prey.
Gummy sharks are hunted for their meat, known as "flake" in southern Australia. They are not currently in danger of being over-fished but fisherman have to be cautious of the snapper sharks in the area, which have a bycatch quota, meaning the fisherman cannot have an adverse impact on their population.
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