Shocking video of great white shark's jaw detaching is giving people nightmares

People have been left terrified after watching a video showing how a Great White Shark opens its jaws as it closes in on its prey.

The short clip shows a Great White lunging out of the water to clamp its jaws around a piece of fish, which had been dangled over as bait.

The teeth can be retracted into the mouth. (by wildestanimal / Getty)

Viewers pointed out how the shark's jaws were projected outwards as it made contact in a ferocious display of the animal's power.

Sharks' jaws don't work in the same way as those of mammals as they are not directly attached to the skull.

Instead, the jaws operate independently and are anchored into the shark's head with muscles.

In the case of a Great White, most of the time the jaws and the teeth they house are secreted away within the shark's mouth.

This allows the shark to maintain a streamlined shape in the water, which both saves energy while cruising and also allows the Great White to have sudden bursts of speed to catch prey.

One of the preferred prey animals of a Great White are pinnipeds, a group which includes seals, sea lions, and walruses.

They might be cumbersome on land, but seals are amazing swimmers capable of phenomenal manoeuvrability in the water.

So, to maximise its chances of catching a seal, the Great White is capable of projecting its jaws outwards.

This exposes the rows of razor sharp serrated teeth and makes it more likely that the seal will be unable to escape.

After all, it's much more difficult to keep hold of a struggling seal if you're just using your gums than if you are sinking your teeth into it.

The teeth can be projected out to catch prey. (Stephen Frink / Getty)

So, the jaws are tucked away while the shark accelerates, then in the final moment as its about to make contact, those cold black eyes roll back and the jaws are thrust outwards, wide open.

People took to the comments on Instagram to share their terror.

One wrote: "The way the jaws come out of the mouth is crazy scary."

Another posted: "I don’t appreciate the way the jaws just half way float out of their body like that."

A third commented: "So the teeth just pop out like that how convenient."

Other species of sharks are also capable of projecting their jaws outwards, and some do it to a far more extreme degree than the Great White.

For example, when the Goblin Shark pushes out its jaws, it can grab something which is swimming a good few inches away from its face.

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