How does the great white shark see?
The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is a shark or ray in the order Lamniformes. Its eyes belong to the vision type Shark, ray and warm-eyed ocean predator.
Measured in this species: colour. Measured colour or sharpness: a measured receptor set or acuity in this species; other dials come from relatives or group defaults. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
What stands out
- It has one receptor class for colour, so it sees brightness but no hue.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 7.864 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- It stops seeing flicker at 29 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks choppier to it.[5][6]
The six dials
Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.
| Dial | Value | Evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Colour receptors 1 receptor class: 501 nm (MWS (green)) species-v1.csv value measured in this species (not in tidy tables) | Measured (not re-verified) | [1] |
| Sharpness | Acuity 7.864 cycles per degree allometry (Elasmobranchii): log10(acuity_cpd) = intercept + slope * log10(eye_diameter_mm); slope 0.776, intercept -0.3222, R2 0.754, n 23 (fitted in this script; fitted range [6.67, 62.1] mm); eye_diameter_mm 37.1 mm | Estimated | [2] |
| Field of view | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Sharp zones (foveas) | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Night vision | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 29 Hz median of 19 relatives in class Elasmobranchii: Platyrhinoidis triseriata, Carcharhinus plumbeus, Mustelus canis, Squalus acanthias, Carcharhinus acronotus, Sphyrna lewini | Group default | [3][4][5][6][7] |
Comparisons
Related animals
- Bigeye thresher shark same vision type
- Sand tiger shark same vision type
- Brownbanded bamboo shark same vision type
- Scalloped hammerhead shark same vision type
- Australian ghostshark same vision type
- Blacknose shark same vision type
More sharks and rays: all sharks and rays with measured vision data.
Sources
- species_v1:Hart et al. 2025
- Claes JM et al. 2014. Photon hunting in the twilight zone: visual features of mesopelagic bioluminescent sharks. PLoS ONE 9:e104213, Dataset S1. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0104213
- Horodysky A, Brill R, Crawford K et al. (2013) Comparative visual ecophysiology of mid-Atlantic temperate reef fishes. Biology Open
- Haarlem CS, Hynes C, Jackson AL, Mitchell KJ, O'Connell RG, Healy K. 2026. Pace of ecology drives the tempo of visual perception across the animal kingdom. Nature Ecology & Evolution (doi:10.1038/s41559-026-02994-7). Figshare dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.30556475. doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30556475
- Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
- Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631
- Lafitte A, Sordello R, Legrand M, Nicolas V, Obein G, Reyjol Y. 2022. A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0279718. S10 File (CFF database). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279718
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?