You may remember that back in the early 1980s, they did make a movie called JAWS-3D. A forgettable film, to say the least. But for our Wide Angle for Shark Week, they asked me to look into some very interesting shark research that's employing 3-D modeling to answer a basic question: just how nasty is the bite of a Great White? The short answer is "pretty nasty." I mean, I personally wouldn't want 1.8 tons of bite-force coming down on my leg, arm, or any other body part. But Dr. Steven Wroe, a research fellow at the University of New South Wales in Australia, and his team have published a paper in the Journal of Zoology detailing a more nuanced view of the Great White's bite. Wroe studies bio-mechanics, and he finds the white "a fascinating animal" when it comes to the way those jaws, made from cartilage and not bone mind you, create the kind of force that strikes fear into the hearts of men and fish alike. I got Wroe on the line to talk a bit more about his research, and its possible implications, for my podcast this week. You can right click here to download it and take it with you, or listen right here via the player below.
I started by asking Dr. Wroe to give a little more detail on the tools and methods he and his team use to measure the bite of a white shark:
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