Posted
August 30, 2013
What's
the world's largest living fish?
What
fish grows to be from 40 to 50 feet long?
What
fish has a mouth about 4 to 5 feet wide but feeds on some of the
teeniest creatures around?
I'm
sure you've guessed that the answer to all these questions is the
whale shark, a gentle, plankton-eating shark.
Whale
sharks are a kind of shark. They are NOT a kind of whale, but their
size is similar to the size of some whales, and their feeding habits
are similar to those of baleen whales, who also eat tiny plankton.
Although whale sharks have a lot of teeth (around 3,000, in fact!),
their teeth are tiny and of little use. Instead of using teeth to
bite food, whale sharks use gill rakers to filter food from huge
mouthfuls of ocean water; this is similar to whales using baleen to
filter their food.
Whale
sharks swim in all tropical and warm-temperate oceans, so there are
many names for them in various languages. In Latin America, they are
commonly called “domino,” because of the spots on their backs,
but in Madagascar and Java their names translate to “many stars”
and “stars on the back.” Kenyans call the whale shark “papa
shillingi,” which refers to a story of a god tossing coins called
shillings onto the creatures' backs, giving them their spots.
Because
whale sharks migrate every year to the shores of the Mexican state
Quintana Roo, on the Yucatan peninsula, a reserve has been
established there to protect these huge creatures. Several Asian
countries, including the Philippines, Taiwan, and India, have banned
killing whale sharks, although enforcement of these laws
is difficult.
Divers love to spot these peaceful creatures—so maybe
tourism can help motivate people to protect whale sharks.
By
the way...
 |
| This chart compares the size of: a human in blue, a great white shark in green, a whale shark in purple, and estimates of the size of megalodon in red and gray. |
I
have said that the whale shark is the world's largest living
fish. But megalodon, a prehistoric shark, was even larger—up to 59
feet (18 m) long! And megalodon wasn't a filter feeder with teeny
teeth! It was a lot like a much larger version of a great white
shark, with huge jaws and enormous teeth! Yi-ikes!
Take a peek at just one megalodon tooth, below. How'd you like to meet up with jaws full of these teeth?
A
blue whale is not a fish (it's a mammal), but a size comparison shows
that this largest of all living creatures is between 80 to 100 feet
(around 30 m), with the very largest measuring 110 feet (33.5 m). Did
you know that today's blue whale is the largest animal EVER to have
lived, that we know of? None of the dinosaurs or dinosaur-era ocean
creatures (at least, that we have fossils of) were larger.
Also
on this date:
Plan ahead:
Here
are my Pinterest pages on August
holidays, historical
anniversaries in August,
and August
birthdays.
And
here are my Pinterest pages on September
holidays, historical
anniversaries in September, and September
birthdays.
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