Have you ever heard of a megamouth shark? Well, if you haven’t today is your lucky day! You get to learn about megamouth sharks!
Imagine you wake up, get out of bed, and stand on a scale and find that you weigh like 2,500 lbs, and then, going to the bathroom and looking in the mirror you find that you have thousands and thousands of teeth. What would you think of yourself: would you feel good about it? How do you think a megamouth shark would feel if the megamouth looked at itself in a mirror?
The megamouth shark is a shark that has rarely been seen by any human and is a species of deepwater shark.
It is able to grow up to 5.49 metres (18.0 ft) in length, and it weighs up to 1,215 kg (2,679 lb). Megamouth sharks are dark blue brownish-black, or grey above, and lighter below, with a white band along the upper jaw, while the posterior margin of its fins are white. They can be found as far northward as northern Japan, southern California and near Punta Eugenia, Baja California, and Hawaii.
The megamouth is a wide-ranging species: it can be found in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The megamouth shark was only discovered in 1976, when a U.S. Navy research vessel hauled up an adult male specimen off the coast of Hawaii near Oahu. While many sharks clock in at around 6.5 meters (21 feet) long, the megamouth gets much bigger. The megamouth shark is not a good swimmer in comparison to other shark species and they have a wobbly body with no keels (horizontal lines that stabilize the movement).
These sharks can be recognized with their large mouths and surprisingly small teeth. The megamouth has an asymmetrical tail with a long upper lobe, similar to that of the thresher shark. Their mouths can reach up to 1.3 metres (almost 5 feet!) wide. We call it Megamouth, but in Dutch, it’s grootbek haai; in French, it’s requin grande gueule; in Spanish, it’s tiburon bocudo. The megamouth has 50 rows of tiny teeth on each jaw, but only the first 3 rows are functional.
Their reproduction is ovoviviparous, meaning that the young sharks developed in eggs that remain within the mother’s body until they hatch.
There was only one confirmed event of a sperm whale attacking a megamouth shark. This took place in Mando, North Sulawesi, Indonesia on the 30th of August, 1998 near midday. Meanwhile, some researchers were observing some sperm whales and they found the base of a megamouth’s dorsal fin which had signs of the whale’s attack on the gills. But good news! The megamouth is not endangered!
Where does the megamouth live? Well, it lives in what is called the epipelagic (upper water column) in open ocean. It is therefore odd that this shark is not more readliy observable, for it is fairly close to the surface. Anyway here the zones:
This whale swims to the deepest zone:
Other sharks that you might like to learn about:
The dwarf lanternshark is the smallest shark species in the world, reaching a length of 20 cm. This species can be identified by its very small size, long flattened head, and pattern of black ventral markings and a mid-dorsal line. Like other members of its genus (a principal taxonomic category that ranks above species and below family), it has the ability of producing light from a distinctive array of photophores.
Whale sharks are found in open waters of the tropical oceans and are hardly ever found in sea level below 70°F. Whale sharks have a lifespan of 80-130 years. Whale sharks have enormous mouths, and they are filter feeding sharks like the basking shark and the megamouth shark. These sharks feed on plankton and small fishes, and pose no threat to humankind.
I really like the basking shark because it’s the second-largest living shark species and how cool it is that there was a species of basking shark living like a million years ago called the Keasius… isn’t that amazing?
I really like mako sharks because they’re so intelligent but sadly they’re endangered and it’s really sad but mako sharks are really fast and can jump out of the water when hooked, making them a competition for fishermen so their like famous and really cool so that’s why I like them.
Here’s the thresher shark:
There is a legend about a shark bigger than the megalodon called the BLACK DEMON known by its powerful jaws and its giant size. The black demon is basically a humungus, overly sized great white shark. The black demon shark has very few sightings and no proof to show its existence therefore this demon like shark is not confirmed as real.