Quickly, without thinking about it, say the name of this shark. What species is it? What did you say? Did the pure black eye, the lunate tail, keeled caudal peduncle, long gill slits, protruding teeth, long pectoral fins and counter-shaded splotchy grey-above-white-below pattern spell out great white shark to you? (hopefully not megalodon...). Well, then youd be wrong. Close, but its not a great white. Its not even in the same genus (Carcharodon) as the great white. Its not even a mako shark (genus Isurus). And whereas it is a member of the genus Lamna, it is not the porbeagle shark. So what is it? Its perhaps the least commonly seen member of the mackerel sharks: the salmon shark (Lamna ditropis), a denizen of the northwestern coast of North America. Its sometimes found washed up on British Columbian shores. The salmon shark bears a striking similarity to the great white, but is smaller, and its narrower teeth are better suited to feeding on smaller fish and squid than the more mammal- and turtle-rich diet of its larger cousin. One of the coolest features of the salmon shark is associated with its northerly distribution in cold seas: it is capable of limited homeothermy, maintaining a higher body temperature than the water around it by means of a counter current heat exchange system in its circulation. bigfishexpeditions/images/Salmon_Shark.jpg
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 04:56:34 +0000
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