The whale shark is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark and the
largest known extant fish species.
The whale shark holds many records for size in the animal kingdom, most
notably being by far the largest living nonmammalian vertebrate.
Whale sharks can grow up to 40 feet (12 meters) long, but on average they
grow to 18 to 32.8 feet (5.5 to 10 m) and weigh 20.6 tons (18.7 metric
tonnes).
That's about the size of a school bus.
Although its mouth can stretch to four feet wide, a whale shark's teeth
are so tiny that they can only eat small shrimp, fish and plankton by
using their gill rakers as a suction filter.
| Family | Species | Common name |
|---|---|---|
| Rhincodontidae | R. typus | Whale Shark | Family summary | Species summary | Name summary |
|
in a different family than the other sharks |
Different species than the other sharks |
has "shark" in name like the other sharks |
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