Top 10: the biggest sharks in the world
More than 450 million years ago, the ancestors of modern sharks held sway in the seas. The largest shark in the world today continue to simultaneously excite and terrify its size. These underwater inhabitants - being extremely interesting. Mistake will consider them exclusively marine predators. Among them there are species that feed only on plankton and krill, and some sharks live in freshwater water.
10 - Mako shark
Mako shark - the largest and fastest predator of herring family of sharks. Able to throw to develop high speed - more than 70 kilometers per hour. Mako shark jumping out of the water by 6 meters, making it one of the most agile and dangerous sea predators. Considered a very aggressive look. The average size of the body - 3,2 - 3,5 meters. The largest specimen caught had a length of 4.45 meters. Mako shark is dangerous to humans, but in most cases, attacks on people have been provoked. The embryos of these sharks attacking each other in the womb and find out which one of them will survive. They formed tiny but sharp teeth.
9 - Fox Shark
Fox shark reaches a length of over 6 meters and is one of the largest predators of its kind. Most of the length of its body takes an elongated tail fin. Very interesting way of hunting these sharks - they use their tail as a whip and use it to drive the first and then stun prey. Fox Shark can jump completely out of the water. The large size makes it looks terrible, but in fact the danger to humans, it is not as pretty timid.
8 - Bluntnose Sixgill Shark
Bluntnose Sixgill Shark is one of the largest marine predators of its family. 5.4 meters - the maximum recorded length. The average size of the shark is 3-4 meters. Hazards to humans, it does not represent, but a negative attitude to the touch and tries to get away from the divers depth. Despite the apparent slowness and clumsiness, while hunting Bluntnose Sixgill Shark is able to perform rapid shots of the escaping victim.
Great hammerhead shark got its name from the impressive size of the body and is one of the largest sharks of the world. Maximum Length - 6, 1 meter. The average size of a hammerhead shark is 3.5 meters. In humans it attacks rare but potentially dangerous marine predators.
6 - Tiger shark
Tiger shark - one of the largest marine predators, which rightly belongs to the biggest sharks. Although the size of the body of this species reaches an average of 5 meters, the researchers suggest that there are larger specimens. Their size can be more than 7 meters. Like the great white shark, the species is most dangerous to humans. Often in the stomachs of marine predators are part of the human body. To protect people from the attacks in some countries held shooting tiger sharks.
5 - Pelagic megamouth shark
Honorable fifth place in the ranking of the biggest sharks in the world takes megamouth shark. It is simultaneously one of the most poorly known species. This inhabitant of the deep was discovered only recently - in 1976. The maximum size of the caught individuals reached 5.70 meters. Scientists have discovered a total of 60 largemouth sharks.
4 - White Shark
White shark, often called the "shark-killer", is impressive not only great power of its jaws, but also the size. This dangerous sea predator among the biggest sharks in the world. The average size of this species reaches 4.5 meters. In the history of recorded several cases where fishermen catch of white sharks longer than 6 meters. White shark belongs to an endangered species in the world there are only 3,500 individuals.
3 - Greenland Polar Shark
Greenland Shark belongs to the largest sharks in the world, living in the northern waters. Its size can be up to 6-7 meters, and weight - one and a half tons. Because of the slowness of it, according to scientists, uses special tactics while hunting - catching seals when they are sleeping peacefully in the water. Polar shark belongs to the most sluggish fish in the world. Its speed does not exceed 2.7 kilometers per hour, due to the low temperature of its environment.
2 - The basking shark
The basking (gigantic) shark - the second place among the biggest sharks in the world belong to this type. Males are slightly smaller than females, the size of the latter reaches 9.8 meters. Perhaps there are instances of up to 15 meters. In the XIX century in a nets of fishermen caught specimen length of about 12 meters. Hazards to humans does not represent, but looks threatening when widely opens mouth. The basking shark allows divers to approach himself at close range. But touch it is not necessary because of the sharp flakes that can injure the skin.
1 - Whale shark
Whale shark - It belongs to the largest shark in the world, and the largest modern fish. The average body length of the whale shark reaches 12-14 meters, but it is possible that there are some members of the species larger - 18-20 meters in length. To feed, the gigantic sea creatures every day have to absorb about 200 kilogram of plankton and small fish. The largest whale shark recorded weight was 36 tons.