Swell Sharks

This is a baby Swell Shark, adorable right? Well here's some facts about them I learned today at Cabrillo.

Name: Swell Shark (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum)
Diet: Teleosts, crustations, molluscs
Reproduction: Oviparous, hatch after 10 months depending on water temperature
Habitat: Rocky reefs and kelp beds with lush algal covered bottom. Warm temperate, subtropical.
Swell sharks are nocturnal and sluggish during the day, their young are about 14 to 15 cm at birth while adults can get up to 3ft. They use electrorecption to hunt their prey.

What is electrorecption?
Sharks have a system of pores in their skin, usually distributed around the head and mouth, that exudes a jelly-like substance when pressed. The pores are surface openings for long jelly-filled tubes that connect to groups of ampullary organs in the head. These organs are composed of the ampullae of Lorenzini sensory receptors. These recieve information conveyed by the ampullary canals. Each ampulla concists of a cluster of multipul sack-like alveoli and continues with the jelly-filled canal. In the walls of the alveoli are the sensory cells. Each ampulla produces around 5 sensory nerves which pass to the brain.
The electroreceptive  system is sensitive to small electrical fields, responding to voltage gradients of less than 0.01 microvolts per centimeter. Most fish and invertibrates produce their own electric fields and so the Swell sharks use this system for hunting.

Fun fact! Sharks sense electrical activity coming from the heartbeat, not necessarily movement.