“Megamouth” It’s гагe shark and a large ѕрeсіeѕ, reaching weights of 2700 pounds
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The megamouth is known for its largemouth that it uses to filter plankton from the water.
“It is also believed that its lips are bioluminescent, which attracts prey to it in the deep sea where it normally lives,” Colin explained.
Because the mouth and jaw are much larger than the shark’s abdomen, the megamouth doesn’t have the strongest swimming abilities.
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The megamouth is known for its largemouth that it uses to filter plankton from the water.
“It is also believed that its lips are bioluminescent, which attracts prey to it in the deep sea where it normally lives,” Colin explained.
Because the mouth and jaw are much larger than the shark’s abdomen, the megamouth doesn’t have the strongest swimming abilities.
This is thought to be due to the restricted internal gill openings and jaw morphology of the megamouth shark.
It is thought that swimming with its mouth open would push water and prey aside, as the water will not be able to pass at any great rate between the densely packed papillose gill rakers and through the relatively small internal gill rakers.
Scientists put radio tags on a male Megamouth that was caught in a net in 1990 and tracked it for two days, revealing that the sharks undergo vertical migration.
Tom Haight, who swam with the shark and photographed it underwater as the animal was tagged and released, wrote that “From dawn to sunset, he swam slowly at 450 to 500 feet into the prevailing current, apparently feeding on krill that were at that depth during the daytime.
From sunset to sunrise he ascended to 39 to 46 feet below the surface to feed on the krill as they also ascended. The extreme daylight depth could explain why the megamouth shark is so rarely spotted.”
Though they give live birth, these sharks do not connect to their young through a placenta.
Instead, during the gestation period, the mother likely provides her young with unfertilized eggs that they actively eat for nourishment.
After they are born, young megamouth sharks immediately become filter feeders. The megamouth shark is not targeted by commercial fishers, but it is often sold when captured accidentally in fisheries targeting other species.
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