The earliest shark fossils date back to almost 450 million years. Dinosaurs did not appear until 230 million years ago, meaning sharks have lived about 3 times as long as dinosaurs, and 100 times as long as hominids (human-like animals). Most shark fossils are teeth or skin (fossilized into scales), and these help scientists determine where and when sharks existed in earth’s timeline. 

The first representation of a shark-human encounter was discovered drawn on a vase dated from 725 BC. References to sharks are found throughout Greek legends and accounts, and many cultures around the world saw sharks as cultural symbols, such as gods or the spirit of their ancestors, while other cultures saw them as malevolent demons. White Sharks were first described in 1776 in a journal, while stories of monster sharks persisted in ships’ logs and sailors’ tales. The first major, modern work on classifying sharks was not completed until the early 1800s with the publishing of Systematische Beschereibung der Plagiostomen. In the Americas, Eugene Gudger was considered the first person to study the biology of sharks in the early 1900s. Sharks came into the spotlight in the mid-1900s during wartime, when soldiers were left floating in the ocean after battles, resulting gin many shark-related casualties. Following these reports, the US Navy opened the Office of Naval Research (ONR), which aimed to study shark behavior in an attempt to understand their relationship with humans. Much research was completed through this organization on the sensory systems of sharks, which was previously unrecorded.