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iNat·48841GenusAnimalia3,078 field observations
  1. Animals
  2. ›Chordates
  3. ›Vertebrates
  4. ›Cartilaginous Fishes
  5. ›Sharks and Rays
  6. ›Sharks
  7. ›Galean Sharks
  8. ›Carpet Sharks
  9. ›Whale Sharks
Whale sharks
Plate 1 of 11. (c) Erik Schlögl, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Erik Schlögl · via iNaturalist

Whale sharks

Rhincodon

The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is a slow-moving filter-feeding carpet 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). 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...

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1 branches of this genus, most-observed first · about 1 known species

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Recorded sightings

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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Every page naming Rhincodon in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 48841.