Whale Shark
Rhincodon typus
The whale shark is both the biggest shark and the biggest fish. Like all sharks, it has a skeleton made of cartilage and very rough skin. The skin of the whale shark can be 4 inches thick.
Whale Shark
Among the often-fearsome sharks, the whale shark is comparatively benign.
WHALE SHARK
Rhincodon typus
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The whale shark is a the biggest shark and the biggest fish. It is NOT a whale. It has a huge mouth which can be up to 4 feet (1.4 m) wide.
Whale Shark Facts
Kingdom:
Five groups that classify all living things...
Whale Shark
Related Category: Vertebrate Zoology
large, plankton-eating shark, Rhincodon typus, found in all tropical seas of the world. The largest known specimens are 50 ft (15 m) long, making them the largest fish in the world.
Whale Shark
The Whale Shark is not a whale at all--it is a fish! Actually, it is the largest known fish and the largest known shark in the world. It can grow to be 45 feet long and weighs as much as 15 tons.
Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world. Adults can be as long as 18 meters and weigh up to 20 tons. The mouth of a whale shark is positioned at the end of its snout.
Whale sharks, Rhincodon typus (Smith, 1828), are the biggest sharks and the biggest fishes in the ocean. They are NOT whales nor are they dangerous to humans (like nearly all sharks).
Whale Shark Range
Fast Facts
Type: Fish Diet: Carnivore Size: 18 to 32.8 ft (5.5 to 10 m) Weight: Average, 20.6 tons (18.7 tonnes) Group name: School Protection status: Threatened Did you know?
Whale shark, Rhincodon typus
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Where are they found? Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean ...
The whale shark is dark gray or greenish gray from its back to the middle of its sides. Its belly is off-white.
White or light yellow spots and lines are also distinguishing features of the whale shark.
The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is a distinctively-marked member of the subclass Elasmobranchii of the class Chondrichthyes. It is the largest shark and also the largest living fish.
Whale shark
The whale shark, Rhincodon typus, is a gentle and slow filter feeding shark that is the largest living fish species.
Whale Shark
The sole living member of its family, the whale shark is the world's largest living fish. Its massive, fusiform body reaches lengths in excess of 46' (14m).
Whale shark feeding
Planet Earth
The world's largest fish survives on the smallest organism... or does it?
Whale sharks are of limited value to fishermen, although they are harpooned in countries such as Pakistan, India, China, and Senegal. Whale sharks are eaten by these people or used to treat boat hulls in Pakistan.
Whale shark (Rhincodon typus)
The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is the largest fish in the world; with its vast size it resembles the whales from which its common name is... More 21 Images 11 Videos ...
Whale shark (Rhincodon typus):
Reaching lengths of up to 50 feet, the whale shark is the largest fish on earth. This gentle giant has small teeth like whale baleen, through which it strains small fish and crustaceans.
Whale shark and human diver
Body and Behaviours
Sharks' bodies are rounded, and taper at both ends, a shape which means they use little energy to swim. They have five different kinds of fins, which are stiff.
Whale shark (Rhincodon typus).
Priority Species
Pelagic sharks are a WWF priority species. WWF treats priority species as one of the most ecologically, economically and/or culturally important species on our planet.
Whale Shark - Fish or Mammal? - Received from Karen Tal
Q: Hi. I saw that you said that the biggest fish in the world was the whale shark. Isn't the whale shark though, a mammal. And fish lay eggs?
Discussion The Whale Shark, the largest fish in the world, feeds on small crustaceans and fishes that it gulps in mouthfuls and strains with its branchial sieve.
eNature Quicklinks
WildlifeGuides: Nature in North America ...
ORECTOLOBIFORMES
whale sharks, collared carpet sharks, blind sharks, wobbegons, bamboo sharks, zebra sharks, nurse sharks
WHALE SHARK
EPAULETTE SHARK ...
A Whale Shark at Great Detached Reef.
A Whale Shark off Western Australia.
A Whale Shark photographed on the FNQ field trip.
A Whip Goby at North Solitary Island
A White Shark at Dangerous Reef
A White Shark at the Neptune Islands ...
Even larger than the Whale Shark is the Fin Whale (the second largest creature in the world). 7 were seen during our trip, including one that remained still for a while just beneath the surface of the water only yards (less than 50) from our boat.
Sharks include species from the very small pygmy shark (Euprotomicrus bispinatus), a deep sea species of only 22 centimetres in length, to the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), the largest fish, which grows to a length of approximately 12 metres (39.
The Basking Shark is the second-largest fish in the world; only the Whale Shark is known to grow larger.
The Basking Shark is found in temperate and northern waters in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is a giant at up to 14 metres (46') and is the second largest fish after the Whale Shark.
Dale studied scarlet macaws, and worked in their conservation, for three years in southern Costa Rica, followed by a year in the Caribbean working on Whale Sharks.
Fish can be as tiny as the 0.31-inch Paedocypris progenetica — a native of Sumatra and the world's smallest vertebrate — or as large as the 51-foot whale shark, a slow-moving filter-feeder found in oceans worldwide.
Their teeth grow in rows. The shark's jaw is loosely connected to its skull, which lets it open its mouth really wide! Most sharks are meat-eaters, but the basking shark and the whale shark eat plankton! ...
 See also: Whale, Shark, Basking Shark, Diver, Tiger
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