Animalia > Chordata > Elasmobranchii > Orectolobiformes > Rhincodontidae > Rhincodon > Rhincodon typus

Rhincodon typus (Whale-shark; Basking shark; Tofu sa; Tofu shark; Whale shark; Whaleshark)

Synonyms:
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Wikipedia Abstract

The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is a slow-moving filter feeding shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of 12.65 m (41.5 ft) and a weight of about 21.5 t (47,000 lb). Unconfirmed claims of considerably larger individuals, over 14 m (46 ft) long and weighing at least 30 t (66,000 lb), are not uncommon. The whale shark holds many records for sheer size in the animal kingdom, most notably being by far the largest living nonmammalian vertebrate. It is the sole member of the genus Rhincodon and the only extant member of the family, Rhincodontidae (called Rhiniodon and Rhinodontidae before 1984), which belongs to the subclass Elasmobranchii in the class Chondrichthyes. The species originated about 60 million years ago.
View Wikipedia Record: Rhincodon typus

Endangered Species

Status: Endangered
View IUCN Record: Rhincodon typus

Attributes

Litter Size [2]  300
Maximum Longevity [2]  54 years
Migration [3]  Oceanodromous
Water Biome [1]  Benthic, Coastal
Adult Weight [2]  20.613 tons (18,700.00 kg)
Female Maturity [2]  19 years
Male Maturity [2]  19 years

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Aldabra Special Reserve 86487 Seychelles    
Christmas Island National Park II 21698 Christmas Island, Australia
Everglades and Dry Tortugas Biosphere Reserve   Florida, United States  
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary IV 2387149 Florida, United States

Prey / Diet

Acartia clausi[4]
Pseudeuphausia latifrons[4]
Thunnus albacares (Yellowfin-tuna)[4]

Predators

Carcharodon carcharias (Maneater shark)[4]
Orcinus orca (Killer Whale)[4]

Consumers

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 3Riede, Klaus (2004) Global Register of Migratory Species - from Global to Regional Scales. Final Report of the R&D-Projekt 808 05 081. 330 pages + CD-ROM
♦ 4Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 5Pollerspöck, J. & Straube, N. (2015), Bibliography database of living/fossil sharks, rays and chimaeras (Chondrichthyes: Elasmobranchii, Holocephali) -Host-Parasites List/Parasite-Hosts List-, World Wide Web electronic publication, Version 04/2015;
♦ 6Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0