How wide is a Great White Shark's Jaw?

Question

My friend thinks a great white sharks jaw is 12 feet wide....can someone prove him wrong and provide a source other than wikipedia so he can't complain about it being "not true?"

Answer 1

never heard of one being THAT big, but it all depends on how big the shark is. Alot of scientists still believe that the Megaladon is still around, and it could grow up to 75+ feet in length, so maybe he saw a fake pic of that.

Answer 2

The largest predatory shark is the Great White (Carcharodon carcharias), said to reach lengths of over 9 metres (30 feet). Until very recently, the largest scientifically-accepted Great White was a 7-metre (23-foot) long specimen captured off Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea, in April 1987. Unfortunately, later investigation revealed that its length was exaggerated by about 25%. A reputedly comparably-sized Great White captured off Kangaroo Island, South Australia, in April 1987 remains the largest predatory shark reliably reported, but since only the head and pectoral fins were retained by the fisherman who caught it, scientific verification of its actual length could not be made. The next-largest Great White on record in the scientific literature is a 6.4-metre specimen harpooned off Cuba in May 1945, but this measurement, too, has been called into question. To the best of my knowledge, the largest Great White recorded in the scientific literature is a 6.1-metre long female captured off Prince Edward Island in August 1983.

http://www.elasmo-research.org/education...

Size:

Contrary to popular belief, great white sharks do not reach 40 feet long. Most average sharks are somewhere around 20 feet and weigh about 5,000 pounds.

http://marinelife.about.com/od/profileso...

Your friend is more than exaggerating!  If he claims to have seen a great white with a jaw as wide as 12 feet,  he would have seen a shark that would have exceeded the measurments of a Megalodon (biggest shark ever living on earth, extinct).  Just not possible.