GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The hammerhead shark has a wide, thick head with the eyes at the margins. The head is indented at the center of the "hammer," which is almost rectangular in shape. This shark is gray-brown above with an off-white belly. The first dorsal fin (the large fin on the top of the shark that most people associate with sharks) is very large and pointed.

TEETH
Teeth are triangular with extremely serrated edges.

SIZE
The average hammerhead shark is up to 11.5 feet long. The largest reported was 20 feet long. These large sharks average about over 500 pounds but can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds. There are 9 species of hammerhead sharks, ranging in size from about 3 feet (0.9 m) long to over 20 feet (6 m).

DIET AND FEEDING HABITS
The hammerhead is a fierce predator with a good sense of smell that helps it find its prey. The great hammerhead eats fish, including rays, and other sharks, squid, octopuses, and crustaceans. The hammerhead has been known to be cannibalistic. Stingrays seem to be a particular favorite of the hammerhead. It kills the ray by using its "hammer" to pin the stingray down while it takes bites from the ray's wings.

HAMMERHEAD SHARK ATTACKS
Many of the hammerheads are harmless to people, but a few species, like the great hammerhead, can be very dangerous.

HABITAT
The hammerhead swims in warm and relatively warm water along the coastlines. They live over the continental shelves and the adjacent drop-off (the upper part of the mesopelagic zone) to depths of about 260 feet.

REPRODUCTION
They give birth to live young. The 20-40 pups are about 27 inches long at birth.

MIGRATION
The hammerhead migrates seasonally to cooler waters during the summer.