Handeware

Field Guide · Chapter 16 of 29

Sharks and rays

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Tiger shark
Elasmobranchii › Carcharhiniformes › Carcharhinidae

Tiger shark

Females top 5 m

The only recorded natural predator of the tiger shark is the orca.

Bull shark
Elasmobranchii › Carcharhiniformes › Carcharhinidae

Bull shark

4.0 m, one female

Some have swum over 1,100 kilometres inland, up the Mississippi to Alton, Illinois.

Blue shark
Elasmobranchii › Carcharhiniformes › Carcharhinidae

Blue shark

Large ones reach 3.8 m

One blue shark mother can give birth to as many as 135 pups in a single litter.

Basking shark
Elasmobranchii › Lamniformes › Cetorhinidae

Basking shark

Typically 7.9 m long

It is the second-largest living fish, after the whale shark.

Greenland shark
Elasmobranchii › Squaliformes › Somniosidae

Greenland shark

272 to 510 years

The longest-lived vertebrate known, living an estimated 272 to 510 years.

Nurse shark
Elasmobranchii › Orectolobiformes › Ginglymostomatidae

Nurse shark

Up to 3.08 m long

A nurse shark can suck with force among the highest recorded for any water-breathing animal with a backbone.

Smalltooth sawfish
Elasmobranchii › Rhinopristiformes › Pristidae

Smalltooth sawfish

Confirmed up to 5.54 m

Scientists long thought its saw could sense prey or catch it, never both. It does both.

Spotted eagle ray
Elasmobranchii › Myliobatiformes › Myliobatidae

Spotted eagle ray

Up to 5 m long

Unlike other rays, it digs in the sand with its snout, inside a cloud of sand that pours from its gills.

1 of 8

On this page

  1. Tiger shark
  2. Bull shark
  3. Blue shark
  4. Basking shark
  5. Greenland shark
  6. Nurse shark
  7. Smalltooth sawfish
  8. Spotted eagle ray

What is real here

Every photograph and every outline comes from a real, openly licensed image, credited at the bottom of its card. Only plain charts are drawn.

The words on these cards are written by AI from the sources named on each card. Software matched every number and claim to a sentence in those sources. Mistakes are still possible, so follow a card's links before relying on it.

Globe dots are real recorded sightings from GBIF. Where a card says native range only, they are clipped to that range. Otherwise they can include zoos, gardens and places the species was introduced.