Animal Encyclopedia Category: Sharks & Rays

Blue sharks are named for the striking blue coloration on their backs, making them the most distinctive of the requiem sharks. The contrast between their white underbelly and dark blue back is called counter-shading and helps provide camouflage for the shark as it swims in the open ocean. The blue shark is one of the … Read more

The white shark, named for its stark white underbelly, is perhaps one of the most recognizable shark species today. Known more commonly as the great white shark, this is one of the largest species of sharks with an estimated maximum length of 20 feet (6.1 m), weighing over 4,000 pounds (1,814 kg) fully grown. Like … Read more

Growing up to 40 feet long, or the size of a school bus, the whale shark is the largest fish in the world.  These huge sharks are characterized by their broad and flattened heads as well as the unique “checkerboard” color pattern on their sides and back of light spots and stripes on a dark … Read more

The tasselled wobbegong is a flat, well-camouflaged shark that sits motionless on the seafloor, waiting for unsuspecting prey to swim a bit too close. It is a member of the carpet shark family, named for their seafloor-dwelling behavior. With its blotchy coloration and the highly branched skin flaps that disguise its mouth and head, the … Read more

With their long, whip-like tails, thresher sharks are one of the most easily recognized species of sharks.  Pelagic thresher sharks are the smallest of the three species of thresher sharks, averaging about 10 feet (3 m)long. They are highly migratory, inhabiting the pelagic waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans, including off the coast of … Read more

The hammerhead sharks are an unmistakable group of sharks that can be distinguished from all other fishes by the shape of their heads. The wide, hammer-shaped head gives these sharks their common name, and the scalloped hammerhead is named for the notches found along the front edge of its head. Like all hammerhead sharks, the … Read more

The nurse shark is one of the most commonly observed sharks on coral and rocky reefs of the eastern Pacific Ocean and the eastern and western Atlantic Ocean. Given that nurse sharks give live birth and that individuals (even juveniles) have relatively small home ranges, it is surprising that all individuals across this large, tropical … Read more

The longnose sawshark is one of seven species of sawsharks, noted for their long, flat rostrum (snout) that is covered with several large teeth on its left and right sides giving it the shape of a saw blade. This saw distinguishes sawsharks from all other species of fishes except the sawfishes. Though they look superficially … Read more

The giant manta ray is the largest ray and one of the largest fishes in the world. Reaching widths of up to 29 feet (8.8 m), the manta rays are much larger than any other ray species. For many decades, there was only one known species of manta, but scientists recently divided that species into two: … Read more

The basking shark is the second largest fish in the world, and like the largest fish (the whale shark) and the largest animal (the blue whale), basking sharks are filter feeders that eat tiny, planktonic prey. Reaching lengths of 40 feet (12 m) and resembling predatory sharks in appearance, the basking shark can give an … Read more