9/20/2023 0 Comments Whale sharks![]() ![]() A 6.2-metre-long whale shark swimming at around one metre per second would be able to filter about 614,000 litres of sea water per hour.ĭespite not needing razor-sharp teeth for cutting and tearing their food, whale sharks still have rows and rows of tiny teeth that are an evolutionary hangover. They use their gill rakers to sieve food particles out and swallow them while the water is expelled through their gills. They can either actively suck food into their mouths or use passive ram filtration - where they slowly swim open-mouthed through patches of food. Like baleen whales, whale sharks are filter feeders. Whale sharks migrate thousands of kilometres and will gather in large numbers at the same sites year after year to take advantage of seasonal fish spawning events and zooplankton blooms. In fact, their gentle nature along with the algae found in their stomachs led some to mistakenly believe that they survived “entirely on vegetable food”. Whale sharks are known for being gentle giants and humans are not on the menu. What do whale sharks eat?ĭespite their enormous size, whale sharks eat tiny planktonic organisms, including copepods, arrow worms, fish eggs, crab larvae, coral spawn and krill. These animals are estimated to have reached 15 to 18 metres long, which makes them similar in length to the biggest whale sharks.įor comparison, the Museum's giant squid Archie measures in at 8.62 metres long. The prehistoric shark megalodon is often considered the biggest shark to ever live. Then there's the Greenland shark, Somniosus microcephalus, at 6.4 metres long and the great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, at around 4.0 metres long, though there have been a few reports of individuals over six metres long. ![]() At 12.3 metres long, the basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus, comes in a close second. Whale sharks are the world's largest shark, but only just - they have some relatively stiff competition. Some think that the whale shark's cartilaginous skeleton may prevent it from reaching larger, blue whale-like proportions. The largest blue whale ever recorded measured a staggering 33 metres in length. While the whale shark is certainly a big animal, it is considerably smaller than the blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus, which is the biggest animal in the world. Scientists may use this approach to remove some of the error that could be introduced by trying to measure the full nose-to-tail length of the animal as it moves through the water. It's also possible to calculate the length of a whale shark by using measurements of certain parts of its body and inputting these into mathematical formulas. Methods like these can result in errors, with one study finding that visual assessments tend to lead to underestimations for sharks more than eight metres long. Measurements may be taken by comparing the animal to the size of a boat or snorkeler, or by swimmers holding up a tape measure or rope knotted at intervals beside the animal. There have been accounts of whale sharks measuring in at over 20 metres in length - though some scientists question the accuracy of these reports given the limited information on how the measurements were taken.Īccurately determining the size of large animals like whale sharks can be tricky. We don't actually know the maximum size limit for these animals. One of the biggest whale sharks ever reported was an impressive 18.8-metre-long female from the north-western Indian Ocean – that's longer than a tenpin bowling lane. ![]() Many grow larger than this - with most of those measured coming in at around 12 metres. Upon reaching sexual maturity, whale sharks are typically about nine metres in length. The Atlantic Ocean is home to the remaining 25% of the whale shark population. It's estimated that 75% of the whale shark population lives in the Indo-Pacific Ocean - which comprises the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean and the seas around Indonesia that connect the two. It is found in tropical and temperate oceans, in both deep water and coastal areas. The whale shark, Rhincodon typus, is the largest fish in the world. Read on to find out about the biggest sharks in the world. There are more than 500 species of shark found across the world, and they range in size from centimetres long to ocean giants. Sharks are a group of fish with skeletons made from cartilage instead of bone. ![]()
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