by Laurie Childree

Created on: November 30, 2008   Last Updated: April 28, 2009

First discovered in November of 1976 by a United States Navy ship attempting to recover dummy torpedos that had been lost off the cost of Hawaii the Mega mouth shark (Megachasma pelagios) is a large, timid and slow swimming shark mostly found in the Pacific Ocean. On November 15th of 1976 the anchor of the navy ship performing the search became hung on something dragging it down. When the anchor was brought up there was a rather large "fish" in the net.

It didn't take long to realize no one had ever seen one before and it would be another seven years before the species was identified and given a name. It took eight years for another male specimen to be found. This time he was dead in fishing net just off the California coast. Since its initial discovery there have been fewer than fifty sightings of the megamouth shark.

-Description-

The large head and rubbery lips are the most distinctive features of the megamouth shark. The megamouth shark differs from other sharks so much it has a family all its own known as the Magachasmidae even though it has been said if might belong to the Cetorhinidae family that has only the basking shark at this time.

The Megamouth shark is nearly 18 feet long and reaches a weight of nearly 1700 pounds. Females of the species reach maturity when they reach a length of 16 feet while males of the species reach maturity at a length to 13 feet. This shark is normally a brown to black color on the top of the body and white on the underside. The tail is asymmetrical with a long upper lobe resembling the thresher shark. Finger like gill rakers to capture food are located on the inside of the gill slits. The megamouth doesn't have keels and possess a flabby body making a poor swimmer. The large mouth contains small teeth and they have a rounded snout causing them to become confused with young orca. The mouth of the megamouth shark is surrounded by luminous organs known as photophores that are thought to be for luring plankton and tiny fish to the shark's mouth.

-Diet-

The megamouth shark feeds on tiny organisms such as crustaceans and phytoplankton. A nocturnal animal they feed near the top of the water by filtering water for food by swimming with its mouth open and descend to almost seven hundred feed during the day.

-Reproduction-

The mother megamouth will develop eggs that stay in the body until the time they hatch. During early sighting they were sometimes mistaken for whales and due to the fact they are rarely seen in the wild few facts are actually known about them.

Sources:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjec ts/sharks/classroom/sharktemplates/Megamouthshark.sh tml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megamouth_shark

http: //www.sharkmans-world.com/mega.html

http://www.austmu s.gov.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/megamouth.htm

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