Page 115 - (DK) Super Shark Encyclopedia: And Other Creatures of the Deep

MYSTERIOUS

GIANT

MEGAMOUTH SHARK

The ocean is big enough to hide its secrets for a long
time, even something as big as the megamouth shark.
This deep-sea giant wasn’t discovered until 1976, when
one was caught off Hawaii, and hasn’t been seen much
since. It feeds on swimming shrimplike animals called
krill by gulping in seawater and filtering out the tiny
prey using its gills.

AT A GLANCE

• SIZE 13–18 ft (4–5.5 m) long • LOCATION Widespread in the
• HABITAT Mainly open ocean subtropics and tropics; recorded
from California, Brazil, Africa, Japan,
in warm regions, but also seen SE Asia, Australia, and Hawaii
near the shore
• DIET Mainly krill and small shrimp,
but also some jellyfish

Fifty rows of
small teeth

STATS AND FACTS

DEPTH DURING THE NIGHT
0–655 ft/0–200 m
The megamouth has (depth of krill)
ft 300 600
fewer prey-detecting
sensory pores on its
m 100 200
short snout than
395–545 ft/120–165 m
longer-nosed sharks,
(feeding depth)
but they are still DEPTH DURING THE DAY
effective for detecting
0–130 ft/0–40 m (depth of krill)
food. It tracks krill at
ft 300 600
the surface by day
and to deeper water
m 100 200
at night.
40–82 ft/12–25 m
SECRET SUCKER (feeding depth)
NO. OF SENSORY PORES 225 (total)
Although no one has seen a
megamouth feeding, scientists 48 (on side of head)
think that it sticks out its huge NO. OF SIGHTINGS
jaws to suck in water. Tiny
swimming animals, such as 6 3 169 (on top of head) 8 (beneath head)
krill, are then trapped by
bristlelike rakers on the gills.
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