Bloodthirsty and huge monsters of the ocean - this is the image of a shark, circulated by cinema and literature. How much does a shark weigh and are these representatives of the ocean fauna really dangerous?
Sharks - inhabitants of the deep sea
The name is a collective image. An ordinary person immediately imagines a fish from horror films. But sharks are a superorder of cartilaginous fish, which includes about 450 species. The features of these animals are a torpedo-shaped body shape, a large heterocercal fin on the back, many teeth on both jaws. Among sharks there are both exceptional predators and peace-loving plankton eaters. The sizes of sharks are different, the body length varies from 17 centimeters to 20 meters. How much does a shark weigh? It depends on its size. Representatives of this superorder inhabit mainly in the salty waters of the seas and oceans, but there are also those who live in fresh waters. We will get acquainted with exceptionally large species and find out how much the largest shark weighs.
1st place: whale shark
Because it is called that, the largest among its friends. Representatives of the species live in the northern and southern seas. And the northern ones are much larger. Whale sharks reach a body length of up to 20 meters and weigh up to 20 tons. Caught in 1949 in the area of the island of Baba, the individual was 12.5 meters in length and weighed 20 tons. This is a gray-brown giant with white spots that have a unique location for each individual. These sharks have been living for about 70 years, and what is most surprising - they are filtrators. This means that they feed by filtering water and filtering plankton. Such a fish pumps 350 tons of water per day and eats 200 kilograms of plankton. Up to 5 people can fit in the mouth of a whale shark; the jaws are covered with 15 thousand small teeth. However, she herself never attacks people, and many scuba divers even manage to touch her. Whale sharks are slow and little studied. Their number is quite small, so the species is listed in the Red Book.
2nd place: elephant shark
Superiority in size with a whale shark is shared by an elephant. This fish is up to 15 meters in length and weighs up to 6 tons. A species that is on the verge of extinction. The shark really looks like an elephant with sunken cheeks because of its widely spread mouth with a diameter of up to 3 meters and with many small teeth. The huge size (another name for this shark is giant) makes the fish inactive. They are also filtrators, but unlike cetaceans live in packs. It’s dangerous to approach such a pack: a tail swing will easily kill a scuba diver.
3rd place: white shark
The next in our ranking is the shark of the herring family, the representative of the most dangerous animals on the planet is the white shark. This is just that monster from horror films. Over 30 years of its life, it grows to 6.5 meters in length, and 300 located in three rows of sharp teeth are updated every three months. The shark itself is gray, but its belly is white. This is an exceptional predator: in the diet there are both fish and marine mammals. Representatives of the species live in all oceans, with the exception of the Arctic. The greatest number of attacks on humans belongs to these predators of the depths. How much a great white shark weighs is a moot point. The recorded case is a shark 6.4 meters long and weighing 3 tons. She was caught in 1945, and so far it is the largest white shark.
4th place: tiger shark
The most common representative of sharks in the oceans. Received its name for the dark stripes on the body. Predator, not averse to attacking humans. In the West Indies, it is considered the most dangerous representative of marine life. How much does a tiger shark weigh? According to statistics, up to 1.5 tons with a body length of up to 5.5 meters. With such dimensions, she can hunt at a depth of up to 3 meters and, surprisingly, does not live in captivity. This is a dangerous omnivorous predator. Why not find in the stomachs of tiger sharks! These are car license plates, household items, and even a chicken coop with bones and feathers of its inhabitants (there was a precedent)!
5th place: polar shark
The size of this representative of the genus is not so large compared to the leaders of the rating: body length - up to 5 meters, weight - about 1 ton. These active predators inhabit the northern seas and the Arctic Ocean. Another name is Greenland or ice. Deep-water species, a large proportion of the diet of which are octopuses. The meat of this shark is saturated with ammonia due to the lack of a urinary system. But among Icelanders, Khakarl, the rotten meat of an ice shark, is a favorite dish. Interestingly, in the process of radiological examination of the lens of the eye, scientists found that a shark 5 meters long has an age of 270 to 512 years. Today they are the most long-lived inhabitants of the seas, due to low metabolism.
Biggest shark extinct
Paleontologists presented the fossils of the extinct ancestor of modern sharks - megalodon, the largest predator of all time. Megalodon lived 23-25 million years ago. Its size can be judged by the fossils of the teeth and several vertebrae. The estimated length of this predator is up to 12 meters. How much does a megalodon shark weigh, of course, we know purely theoretically. But the calculations show 42 tons.
