Popularised by Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ thriller, the great white is a species of large mackerel shark renowned for its daunting size, with some growing up to 20 feet in length – but most are much smaller, with females averaging around 15 to 16 feet and males between 11 and 13 feet. In the Hollywood thriller, the sea creatures were depicted as ferocious man-eaters, but humans are not their preferred prey, in spite of a large number of reported attacks. The earliest known fossils of the great white shark are about 16 million years old, meaning they date back to the mid-Miocene epoch, and researchers argue its origins could be linked to the fall of the Megalodon some four million years ago.