Whale sharks can carry up to 300 babies at once--at different fetal stages and from different fathers. Zebra sharks experience "virgin birth." These are but a mere sampling of the decade's most fascinating shark discoveries. Some 500 known species of these toothy fish ply our planet's waters, ranging from bite size to bus size, and scientists are still becoming acquainted with most of them. Since 2000, when scientists discovered shark populations were collapsing around the world, research on sharks has ramped up across many fields of study, from paleontology to neuroscience to biomechanics.

The U.S. Army is funding research on the skin of the mako shark that was presented Monday and could impact how aircraft are built. The skin of the mako shark is being studied by the U.S. Army to help build faster aircraft, according to research presented on Monday. Makos, the world's fastest sharks, have rows of millions of tiny raised scales along their sides and fins that researchers at the University of Alabama (UA) believe could be the reason for that lightning speed. Dr. Amy Lang, a UA aeronautical engineer, is leading the research that she presented at a meeting of the American Physical Society Meeting on Monday, The Independent reported. The mako's scales, called denticles, are translucent, flexible and shaped like tiny shark teeth.

In 1952, well before developmental biologists spoke in terms of Hoxgenes and transcription factors, or even understood DNA's structure, Alan Turing had an idea. The famed mathematician who hastened the end of World War II by cracking the Enigma code turned his mind to the natural world and devised an elegant mathematical model of pattern formation. His theory outlined how endless varieties of stripes, spots, and scales could emerge from the interaction of two simple, hypothetical chemical agents, or "morphogens." Decades passed before biologists seriously considered that this mathematical theory could in fact explain myriad biological patterns. The development of mammalian hair, the feathers of birds, and even those ridges on the roof of your mouth all stem from Turing-like mechanisms.