Whale shark FAQ's
Why do sharks also have Latin names and what is a whale shark's Latin name?
A species of shark may have various "common names" in different parts of the world, but to avoid confusion among scientists each species has only one scientific name. When scientists first devised classification of animals and plants Latin was the language of scholars. The first name of whale sharks (Rhincodon) tells us the genus to which the sharks belong; the second name (typus) is their species name.
Does the whale shark have any teeth?
Yes, and its original name (Rhinodonte) literally means "rasp tooth." The shark has several thousand teeth in 11 to 12 rows in its jaws, but each tooth is only 1/12th of an inch [3 mm] in length.
What is a shark's lateral line and how does it work?
The lateral line is a band of nerves running along each side of the whale shark from its head to its tail; it lies in the depression between its second and third lateral ridge. Blow steadily on the palm of your hand. Can you feel the air movement? Now wave a finger between your breath and your hand, and feel the interruptions in air movement. Just as you feel the breaks in air pressure, so the shark's lateral line helps it detect changes in water pressure. The shark uses this sense of `distant touch' to determine the speed, size and form of an object moving through the water.
How does a whale shark reproduce?
In 1953 a shark egg case containing a 14.5-inch [36.8 cm] whale shark embryo was found in a trawl net in the Gulf of Mexico. The find created a controversy that lasted 42 years; some scientists speculated that whale sharks were oviparous (egg laying sharks), while others believed they were live-bearers and the egg resulted from a premature birth. In 1995 the controversy ended when a team of scientists from National Taiwan Ocean University examined a 35-ft [10.6 m] pregnant whale shark that had been harpooned by a Taiwanese fisherman. Her twin uteruses contained 300 embryos ranging in size from 16 to 25 inches in length [40 to 63 cm] - proof that the embryos emerge from egg cases while still inside the mother's body and that whale sharks are live-bearers. Of the 300 embryos, 15 were alive, fully-developed and ready to be born.
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