Now that you’ve started to learn more about sharks, we know, you’re completely hooked! Luckily, you’ve come to the right place. They are fed milk: in fact, the ability of females to produce milk from mammary glands is one of the defining features of mammals. They are cared for after birth like all mammals. In comparison, whales are lucky to get so much attention from their mothers. Shark embryos are protected by tough egg cases that are deposited somewhere safe, or by hatching inside their mothers’ bodies and remaining there until birth. To give their offspring a better fighting chance, sharks produce a small number of eggs and embryos (usually less than 100) – compared to the hundreds or thousands of eggs produced by bony fish. In either case, newborn sharks receive little or no parental care. Some sharks lay eggs, while others give birth to live young, after eggs hatch within their bodies.
Deep blue shark size comparison skin#
On an evolutionary time scale, whales are just babies, having appeared only about 50 to 60 million years ago! Compared to sharks, whales have smooth skin (no scales), and their tails move up-and-down for swimming. The history of these hairy creatures goes back about half as long as fish: they appeared on the earth about 180 to 200 million years ago. Whales on the other hand are mammals, a wholly different class of vertebrates. To swim, they move their tails from side-to-side. They live in water and their bodies are covered in scales. The largest blue whale ever found weighed around 418,000 pounds, which was almost 75 larger than some of the largest Megs.
And at a minimum, blue whales weigh 290,000 pounds, slightly beating the megalodon. They are also very ancient beasts – this Class of aquatic animals has existed on the earth for more than 400 million years. If we look at the weight estimates of the megalodon, scientists believe they weighed about 227,000 pounds. They are vertebrates, meaning they have a rigid backbone. Here are some of the main ones: Comparing Sharks & Whales There are many interesting distinctions between these animals. Since you’re so curious, let’s take a look at how sharks are different from whales. In fact, it’s easy to make that mistake, especially when there are confusing names like “Whale Shark” used for a fish, not a whale! You would not be alone in thinking that sharks and whales are alike. “How are they so different?!”, you beg to know. She tells you that these animals aren’t closely related at all! In fact, she explains, even though they both live in the ocean and have dorsal fins on their backs, sharks are remarkably different from whales. Wow! After the journey, you tell your friend how thrilled you are to have seen not one, but two members of this incredible family of aquatic creatures.