Big Mac in the water
What is the biggest fish in the world? If you were asked this question, would you be able to give the correct answer? Some say it's a blue whale, but blue whales are mammals, not fish. The correct answer is the whale shark! Yes, this name sounds quite confusing, as if it is a close relative of the whale, but it is actually the king of fish and lord of the ocean.
How big are whale sharks? This is the first thing we want to ask. Cold numbers can easily confuse people. Let's compare them with real objects: the width of a standard basketball court is 15 meters, and the length of a whale shark can easily exceed this figure. astonishing length of meters. With length comes weight, and the largest whale shark weighs 55,500 kilograms. When such a monster appears in the water, I think you won't thinks that this dark blue object is a living being. I'm afraid you might think it's a floating island in the water.
The dragon has its head but not its tail
According to scientific research data, the main living area of whale sharks is between 30 degrees south latitude and 30 degrees south. northern latitude, and tropical seas are their favorites. Logically speaking, a creature of this size should be very visible. Such a large creature with a very gentle temperament naturally fascinates divers. However, many divers search for them in tropical waters every year, hoping to get closer to the lords of the oceans, but they always fail. The whale shark's comings and goings are like those of a divine dragon that never ends.
For this reason, whale sharks are one of the least understood wild animals. Of course, the researchers worked hard, but, like the divers, we did notWe have never been able to fully understand whale sharks. There is so much we don't know about whale sharks. For example, the biggest mystery is: where do young whale sharks live? It is true that you can sometimes see, or even capture, whale sharks, but they are generally large sharks over 10 meters long, and it is rare to hear of capture of small juvenile whale sharks.
Oviparous or viviparous?
Of course, we didn't see any young whale sharks. In 1995, a female whale shark was captured in the Taiwan Strait. It measured 10 meters long and contained 330 embryos of varying degrees of development in its womb. The breeding method of whale sharks is very strange, very different from ordinary fish. Young whale sharks break the eggs in the mother's body and are already fish-shaped when they leave the mother's body. the oviParity and viviparity are called “ovoviviparous”. Whale shark embryos are approximately 45 to 65 centimeters long and look very similar to adult whale sharks. They also have huge mouths and bead-shaped eyes, and their bodies are also blue and covered in white spots.
Based on the facts about the embryo, scientists assume that whale shark larvae are about 55 to 70 centimeters long when they are born, or less than a meter. However, it takes 30 years for a male whale shark to reach sexual maturity, and a 30-year-old male whale shark is already around 10 meters long. The gap period during this development period is still unresolved.reply. In desperation, some people believe that young whale sharks only live in the deep sea until they reach sexual maturity.
However, there are no absolutes. In 1993, a fishing boat in the waters of Cortez, Mexico, reported finding 12 juvenile whale sharks approximately 3 meters long feeding near the sea surface on plankton. However, this unexpected report represents an isolated piece of evidence in the history of whale shark research, and we still fail to fully understand the true trajectory of these lords of the oceans.
This work is an original work of "Science Popularization in China - One-Point Scientific Principles". Please indicate the source when reprinting