The
basking shark
It
is a huge shark which grows up to 33 feet (10 m) long.
After the
whale shark, it
is the second largest shark. It is known as the sunfish,
the bone shark, the elephant shark, the sailfish
shark, and the big mouth shark. Since it spends most of
its time at the surface, its nickname is the "sunfish."
Being harmless to people, Basking sharks live in coastal
temperate waters. Basking sharks are slow swimmers,
going no more than 3 mph (5 kHz). They swim by moving
their entire bodies from side to side (not just their
tails, like some other sharks do).
Body:
It has a huge mouth which is used to
collect tiny food that floats in the water. Female
basking sharks are up to 33 feet (10 m) long; males are
up to 30 feet (9 m) long. It is a slow swimmer with
giant gills that clean its food from the water. Its nose
is short.
Food:
Basking sharks take apart small
animals from the water. As a basking shark swims with
its mouth open, masses of water filled with prey flood
through its mouth. The quarry includes plankton, baby
fish, and fish eggs. After closing its mouth, the shark
uses gill to clean the food from the water. Basking
sharks have hundreds of teeth which are small and are of
little use.
Class:
Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata,
Class Chondrichthyes, Order Lamniformes, Family
Cetorhinidae, Genus Cetorhinus, Species maximus.
There are over 70 different species of Angelfishr in
warm ocean waters around the world. Angelfish belong to
Pomacanthus. These brightly-colored fish live in coral
reefs of tropical seas and shallow subtropical waters.
Angelfish reproduce by laying hundreds of eggs at a
time.
